Practice

Appeal to House of Lords claimant alleging decision reached on basis of perjured evidence appropriate challenge by fresh actionKuwait Airways Corpn v Iraqi Airways...Appeal to House of Lords claimant alleging decision reached on basis of perjured evidence appropriate challenge by fresh actionKuwait Airways Corpn v Iraqi Airways Co and Another: HL (Lord Slynn of Hadley, Lord Goff of Chieveley, Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle and Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead): Reasons 8 February 2001The petitioner sought a variation of the order made by the House of Lords in Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Company ([1995] Gazette, 13 September 28; [1995] 1 WLR 1147) alleging that the findings of fact which the House had applied to the law had been made in reliance on false and perjured evidence given on behalf of the defendant with the intention of deceiving the court.Christopher Greenwood QC, Geoffrey Vos QC, Joe Smouha and Samuel Wordsworth (instructed by Howard Kennedy) for the claimant; David Donaldson QC and Stephen Nathan QC (instructed by Landau & Scanlan) for the defendant.Held, dismissing the petition, that the issues raised by the claimant were prima facie relevant, serious and substantial; that however, those issues should not be raised in a petition before the House as it was well established that where a final decision had been made by a court a challenge to the decision on the basis that it had been obtained by fraud had to be made by a fresh action alleging and proving the fraud; that, in addition, even if there were a discretion to review a previous decision of the House it was not suitable or convenient to do so since the facts were complex and it would not be appropriate for the House to investigate them; and that the most convenient and appropriate course was for the claimant, if he chose to raise the matters, to do so in a separate action.

(WLR)