Akita Holdings Ltd v Attorney General – the final curtain

Following his success before the Privy Council early last year in Akita Holdings Ltd v AG for Turks & Caicos Islands [2017] AC 590 David Phillips QC returned to the Turks & Caicos Islands’ Supreme Court for the taking of the account affirmed by the Privy Council.  The issues involved application of the principles set out by the Privy Council, namely the remedies available against a knowing recipient of property acquired at an undervalue from a person acting in breach of a fiduciary duty included the personal remedy of seeking an account of profits and that the liability to account arose from the mere fact of a profit having been made which should not be retained by the fiduciary or a knowing participant in the fiduciary’s breach of duty. 

In the event, the sums payable to the Government by Akita on an application of those principles were agreed during the morning of the first day’s hearing on 15 March 2018.  This brought to an end proceedings that had been commenced in 2011: the action had involved three hearings in the Supreme Court, two hearings in the Court of Appeal, and one in the Privy Council.  David’s case had succeeded in all bar the first appearance – which was reversed in David’s favour by the Court of Appeal.