The High Court has ordered Business Aviation Limited (BAL) to discharge three registrations against an aircraft owned by UniCredit Global Leasing Export GmbH and its two engines. If BAL did not comply within 48 hours of the order made on 19 February 2019, the Registrar was directed to take steps to give effect to it. The court deferred a decision on whether BAL should be restrained from making further registrations.
In a judgment delivered on 6 March 2019, Mr Justice Denis McDonald found the registrations had no proper basis. BAL had registered them on 9 March 2018 as non-consensual rights or interests under a declaration by the United Arab Emirates. The entries stated that the aircraft was registered in the UAE. The evidence before the court showed it was registered in Germany, which was not a contracting state to the relevant convention. UniCredit was situated in Austria, also not a contracting state. The judge concluded there was no connecting factor bringing the aircraft or engines within the convention’s registration system.
The judge also considered the claim BAL relied on: a purported entitlement to repayment of a payment of about US$1.035 million made by ImperialJet Europe GmbH to UniCredit. UniCredit said it was a down payment under an offer to extend credit to Phoenix XX Aviation Management GmbH. BAL said the payment was funded by it as a loan to keep negotiations going. Accepting UniCredit’s direct evidence about the negotiations, the judge found the payment was made on Phoenix’s behalf under the offer. He found no contract between UniCredit and BAL or ImperialJet on the evidence, and concluded that any repayment claim was personal in nature, rather than a right in or against the aircraft or engines.
The judge also examined the UAE law evidence. He preferred UniCredit’s expert evidence and found no basis to treat BAL’s claim as a registrable interest under the UAE declaration. He did not make a formal finding on whether an authorising entry point code was required, saying that issue had not been sufficiently flagged in the evidence.
The court said BAL had failed to remove the registrations after UniCredit demanded their discharge in April 2018, leaving court intervention necessary. The Registrar was to act if BAL did not comply with the order. On the separate restraint request, the judge said there were grounds for concern about the registration, including the incorrect UAE registry detail and missing documentation for BAL’s alleged assignment of ImperialJet’s claim. But he deferred any order until the Registrar could make submissions.