Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Non-compliance with CMC order to plead foreign law risks losing defence: English Commercial Court clarifies Brownlie does not alter burden or sequencing for expert evidence

Published on: 03 March 2026

Published by a LexisNexis Dispute Resolution expert

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Article summary

Direct Investments Ltd (a company in receivership incorporated in the British Virgin Islands) v Mittal-Goenka [2026] EWHC 460 (Comm)

What are the practical implications of this case?

This ruling illustrates that a party cannot sidestep an earlier case management direction by claiming circumstances have shifted, or by repackaging the order of issues, simply by altering its stance at all. Where the court has ordered particularisation of foreign law, that requirement stands unless successfully appealed or varied. A litigant who pleads foreign law but does not pinpoint the precise principles relied on risks being barred from pursuing the argument at all. The court further made clear that FS Cairo (Nile Plaza) LLC v Brownlie [2021] UKSC 45 neither dispenses with proper pleadings nor permits postponement of particularisation. In practical terms, once foreign law is put in play, it must be stated with clarity, and any case management order addressing it is binding unless and until it is formally reconsidered.

What was the background?

The claimant, Direct Investments Ltd, is a BVI company in receivership that brought substantial monetary claims against four defendants: Vartika Mittal-Goenka, Sangeeta Mittal, Shirsti Mittal and Divyesh Mittal...

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