Privy Council Dismisses Appeal Against Turks & Caicos Civil Recovery Claim

London – March 30, 2017 – The Privy Council dismissed Akita Holdings’ appeal against longtime Cooley client the Turks & Caicos Islands Government (TCIG), affirming the decisions of the TCI Court of Appeal and Supreme Court on the proper measure of damages following a former Government Minister’s breach of fiduciary duty in selling Crown land to his company at an undervalue.

As well as dismissing the appeal, the Privy Council ordered Akita Holdings to pay TCIG's costs of the appeal and returned the case to the TCI Supreme Court to assess the damages.

Cooley’s team, led by Laurence Harris, partner and vice-chair of the firm’s litigation department, and associate Jamie Humphreys, instructed David Phillips QC of Wilberforce Chambers and Patrick Patterson of Caribbean Associated Attorneys as counsel.

In December 2009, the Attorney General of the Turks and Caicos appointed a team now at Cooley to lead the island’s civil recovery efforts following a Commission of Inquiry Report by Sir Robin Auld. Since then, the team at Cooley has been involved in nearly 70 different claims to recover land and money from parties in what is one of the largest asset recovery programmes in the world. In 2016, Cooley defeated an appeal before the TCI Court of Appeal relating to 20 acres of pristine beach land for development in the Northwest of the main island.

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Clients partner with Cooley on transformative deals, complex IP and regulatory matters, and high-stakes litigation, where innovation meets the law. Its asset recovery practice acts for Governments around the world in complex civil recovery claims and the strategy for developing and running such programmes.

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