mareva injunction

The High Court has power has an inherent power to prevent abuse of its own process.  Part of that power is to make orders to preserve the status quo between the parties prior to the trial, and to protect the final judgment of the court by preventing the defendant moving assets outside of the jurisdiction of the Court or disposing of those assets within the jurisdiction of the Court, such that the assets were out of the reach of the claimant to enforce a favourable judgment. Mareva Injunctions are special form of interim injunction which achieves these objectives. The Mareva jurisdiction of the High Court is confirmed by s 37(3) of the Supreme Court Act. 

Ordinarily, claimants are not entitled to obtain interim orders in respect to property to which the claimant does not have a proprietary interest. Prior to 1975, English Courts refused to order interim injunctions other than in respect to tracing cases (ie where the claimant asserted a proprietary interest in assets where the legal title vested in the defendant).  This gap in the ability of the Court to protect abuses of its own process and preserve assets for the purposes of satisfying judgments gave rise to Mareva injunctions.

Usage: The Mareva injunction prevented the defendant from drawing on its bank account without the knowledge of the claimant in the legal proceedings.

Related Words: freezing injunction; interim injunction; search order; injunction; specific performance; Anton Pillar Order.