Cayman ISLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Sam Dawson, Peter Sherwood and Denis Olarou, Carey Olsen
Disposal of a Case on a Point of Law Finally, under Order 14A of the Grand Court Rules, the court has the power to dispose of the case on a point of law or construction of a docu- ment. The court may do so where the question is suitable for determination without a full trial and such determination will fully determine (subject only to any possible appeal) the entire claim or any issue within it. 4.3 Dispositive Motions There is a variety of dispositive motions that can be made before trial. They include applications for: • judgment in default of acknowledgment of service or defence (see 3.6 Failure to Respond ); • summary judgment (see 4.2 Early Judgment Applications ); • disposal on a point of law (see 4.2 Early Judgment Applications ); • strike out (see 4.2 Early Judgment Applica- tions ); and • jurisdictional challenge. A defendant must launch any jurisdictional challenge within the time limited for service of defence (Order 12, Rule 8 of the Grand Court Rules). If the challenge succeeds, the court will decline jurisdiction and the proceedings will end. If the challenge fails, the claim will proceed, but the defendant will be granted further time to file a further acknowledgment of service and to serve a defence in due course. There are a variety of potential grounds for chal- lenging jurisdiction, including: • an irregularity in the writ or service thereof; • an irregularity in any order giving leave to serve the writ out of jurisdiction;
Application for summary judgment is made by summons and supported by an affidavit verify- ing the facts on which the claim (or the defence) is based. The affidavit must state the affiant’s belief that there is no defence to the claim or, as the case may be, no defence except as to the amount of damages. The respondent to the application must show cause against it by affi- davit or otherwise to the satisfaction of the court. Summary judgment procedure is not normally appropriate for instances where there is a sub- stantial factual dispute between the parties. The court will not conduct a mini-trial. Upon hearing the application, the court may strike out the claim or the defence, in full or in part, and enter judgment for plaintiff or defend- ant accordingly. Where the court dismisses the summary judgment application, it may allow the action to proceed either unconditionally or on A related but distinct jurisdiction exists under Order 18, Rule 19 of the Grand Court Rules for the court to strike out or amend the whole or part of any pleading in a case. Such strike out is possible if the court is satisfied that the pleading: • discloses no reasonable cause of action or defence; • is scandalous, frivolous or vexatious; • may prejudice, embarrass or delay the fair trial of the action; or • is otherwise an abuse of process of the court. Such strike out may have the consequence of the action being stayed, dismissed, or judgment being entered accordingly. such terms as it sees fit. Striking Out a Pleading
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