The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal brought by Valbonne Estates Limited against the order of Mrs Justice Bacon which discharged a proprietary injunction restraining United Homes Limited from dealing with a development property which it had purchased at the end of 2020.

On an application by United Homes Limited, the judge discharged the injunction at the return date on the grounds that there had been serious and substantial breaches of the duty of full and frank disclosure at the without notice hearing at which the injunction was granted. Valbonne was granted permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal against the judge’s refusal to re-grant the injunction in light of what it said was a strong proprietary claim.

Dismissing the appeal, the Court of Appeal confirmed that where there have been breaches of the duty of full and frank disclosure at a without notice hearing, the general rule is that the order should be discharged and the court should refuse to re-grant it.  The court re-iterated that there are no “hard and fast rules” as to how the discretion should be exercised but found that, on the facts of the case, the judge’s decision not to re-grant the injunction was “unimpeachable”.

Edward Levey QC acted for United Homes in the court below and in the Court of Appeal.