Children Fail in High Court Bid to Halt Enforcement of US$16 Million Judgment Debt against their Mother

Tanfield’s Marc Glover has successfully resisted an application seeking to prevent the continued enforcement of a judgment debt exceeding US$16 million against the Third Defendant, notwithstanding outstanding costs orders in favour of two of her adult children, the Fourth and Sixth Defendants.

In Gupta v Shah & Ors [2026] EWHC 2064 (Ch), the High Court dismissed an application by the Fourth and Sixth Defendants for an unless order which would have prevented the Claimants from taking further steps in the proceedings, including ongoing enforcement against their mother.

The decision forms the latest chapter in a long-running fraud and trust litigation in which the Marc Glover previously obtained substantial success from the Claimants:

• Gupta v Shah & Ors [2023] EWHC 540 (Ch), where Sir Anthony Mann granted a $14M+ summary judgment against the First Defendant and upheld proprietary claims concerning funds misappropriated from the Claimants.  See Tanfield’s previous article here.
• Gupta v Shah & Ors [2024] EWHC 1189 (Ch), where Thompsell J made a debarring order against the Third Defendant and granted a $16M+ final judgment against her, and unless orders concerning the continuing claims against other members of the Shah family.

The High Court held that it would be inappropriate to prevent the Claimants enforcing their judgments against the Third Defendant because costs remained unpaid to the Fourth and Sixth Defendants. The court also attached significance to substantial cross-costs liabilities owed by those defendants to the Claimants and the fact that ordinary costs enforcement mechanisms remained available.

Of wider interest, the judgment contains important observations on the limits of the court’s inherent jurisdiction to make costs-based debarring orders and on the proper scope of Zacaroli J’s decision in Tonstate Group Ltd v Wojakovski [2020] EWHC 1004 (Ch).

 

Read our detailed briefing note here.