UK: England and Wales: service of claim on an overseas company

Judgment was delivered yesterday in Teekay Tankers Ltd v STX Offshore & Shipping Co [2014] EWHC 3612 (Comm). The case involved a challenge by STX (an overseas company) regarding the jurisdiction of the English court to hear a claim for damages brought against it by Teekay. One of the arguments made, but rejected by the trial judge, was that the service of the Claim Form, which had been effected on STX's registered UK establishment, was ineffective.

In reaching this view, the trial judge considered Regulation 7 of the Overseas Companies Regulations 2009 (No. 1801), which sets out what information must be provided in respect of an overseas company's registered establishment, including the "... name and service address of every person resident in the United Kingdom authorised to accept service of documents on behalf of the company in respect of the establishment...". The judge held that the words "in respect of the establishment" referred to the person and not to the documents: in other words, the company was required to register the details of each person who, in respect of the establishment, was authorised to accept service of documents on behalf of the company.