Chick v Guernsey Financial Services Commission (Application for Strike Out) (2020-06-12)

Summary

This is a Royal Court of Guernsey judgment in Chick v GFSC, deciding the Commission's application to strike out a civil claim brought by a former director and shareholder of a licensed fiduciary business. Mr Chick sought over 7.4 million pounds in damages, alleging that the GFSC's enforcement investigation, Sanction Notice and Public Statement (which resulted in a 50,000 pound fine and a 5 year prohibition order against him) breached his rights under Articles 6, 7 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Court reviewed the GFSC's statutory enforcement process under sections 11B to 11J of the Financial Services Commission (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1987, including the right to make representations, the role of a Senior Decision Maker, and the statutory right of appeal to the Royal Court within 28 days of a decision. The Lieutenant Bailiff concluded that any procedural inadequacies in the GFSC's internal enforcement process could be cured by the statutory appeal route, that Article 7 (no punishment without law) was not engaged because the proceedings were neither criminal nor quasi-criminal, and that Article 14 could not stand alone absent an established breach of another Convention right. The Court struck out Mr Chick's cause of action for disclosing no reasonable grounds.

• Nature of document: A Royal Court judgment on a strike-out application, not a rule, guidance note or enforcement decision of general application.
• Outcome: Mr Chick's civil claim against the GFSC was struck out; the GFSC's original 2018 fine and prohibition order against him were not disturbed.
• Relevance to practitioners: Confirms that alleged inadequacies in the GFSC's enforcement/SDM process are generally regarded as curable via the statutory appeal to the Royal Court, and that Articles 7 and 14 ECHR are unlikely to assist in challenging GFSC civil enforcement sanctions.

As a court judgment resolving a specific dispute, this document does not itself create new ongoing regulatory obligations for licensees; it is published for its precedential and procedural value regarding challenges to GFSC enforcement decisions.

Applies to

licensed fiduciaries, directors and controllers of licensed fiduciary businesses, trust companies

Deadlines

• within 28 days of notice of the GFSC's decision: Statutory time limit under section 11H(3) of the FSC Law for a person aggrieved by a GFSC enforcement decision to institute an appeal to the Royal Court.
• within 14 days of the formal handing down of the judgment: Time limit stated in the judgment for any applications arising from the judgment to be lodged at the Greffe.