Tanner Courrier v HKA Global: English court upholds service out despite Delaware disclosure failure

The High Court has declined to set aside two orders permitting service of proceedings out of the jurisdiction on a Las Vegas-based expert witness and a Delaware-incorporated consultancy, notwithstanding a finding that the respondent had breached its duty of full and frank disclosure. The judgement of Mr Justice Dexter Dias in Tanner Courrier & Anor v HKA Global LLC & Ors [2026] EWHC 1318 (KB), handed down on 3 June 2026, addresses service out, forum conveniens, and the boundaries of disclosure obligations in ex parte applications, set against a transatlantic dispute over restrictive covenants in a private equity investment document.

Background

Following PAI Partners' acquisition of HKA Global LLC in May 2022, partners Tanner Courrier, Hansell Pasco, and Christopher Beirise each adhered to a nominee deed governed by English law and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. In June 2024, the three partners resigned to join Accuracy US LLC, a newly incorporated competitor. A transition and settlement agreement ("TSA") granted a conditional release from certain restrictive covenants, including non-compete provisions, but expressly preserved the nominee deed's non-poach covenant.

HKA Group Holdings Limited ("HKA UK") subsequently alleged that the partners and Accuracy US had conspired to solicit HKA employees to join Accuracy US in breach of the nominee deed, referring to an internal scheme termed "Project K." Separately, HKA Global had filed proceedings in Delaware's Court of Chancery. In April 2021, Vice Chancellor Lori Will refused a preliminary injunction, finding the restrictive covenants in Beirise's employment-based Restrictive Covenant Agreement ("RCA") probably unenforceable for overbreadth.

Master Eastman granted HKA UK permission to serve the additional claim on Beirise and Accuracy US in the United States in July 2025, and permission for alternative service in September 2025. Both applicants applied under CPR Part 11 to set aside those orders.

Full and frank disclosure

Dias J identified one material breach of HKA UK's disclosure obligations: its failure to bring the Vice Chancellor's interim decision to Master Eastman's attention. The respondent had disclosed the existence of the Delaware proceedings, and the court was satisfied the TSA had been sufficiently characterised in the pleadings. However, two months before the service out application, the Delaware court had found the RCA covenants likely unenforceable, and an argument by analogy, that similar covenants in the nominee deed might be similarly vulnerable, had simply never been placed before the Master. That omission was a material breach of both the full and frank disclosure duty and the duty of fair presentation.

The breach was not, however, found to be deliberate. The respondent had notified Carter Bond of its intention to apply before the Vice Chancellor delivered her ruling, undermining the suggestion of tactical manoeuvring. Applying the framework in Dar al Arkan v Al Rafai [2012] and the long-established discretion articulated in Brink's Mat v Elcombe [1988], Dias J concluded that discharge would be disproportionate. The appropriate sanction was costs.

Merits, gateway, and forum

On the substantive issues, the court found a serious issue to be tried against both Beirise and Accuracy US on the unlawful means conspiracy claim. Taking the pleaded facts as assumed true in accordance with Okpabi v Royal Dutch Shell [2021], the court held the particulars sufficient to carry the necessary degree of conviction, noting the granular detail of Project K, including the targeting of named employees, salary data collated in breach of confidentiality, and Accuracy US's provision of an indemnity to the partners.

The applicable gateway under PD6B 3.1(3) was readily established, the applicants' objection being described as misconceived. On forum, the exclusive English jurisdiction clause in the nominee deed, the English court's existing seisure of the negative declaratory proceedings brought by Courrier and Pasco, Beirise's contractual waiver of any inconvenient forum objection, and the Delaware court's own confirmation that England is the "proper forum" for nominee deed disputes, collectively placed the matter beyond reasonable contest. England was clearly the most appropriate forum.

Significance

The judgement reaffirms that non-disclosure of foreign interim rulings in parallel proceedings will be treated as material in service out applications, particularly where an argument by analogy was available to the absent respondents. It also illustrates the court's willingness to distinguish the remedial consequences of non-disclosure in service out cases from those arising in freezing order applications, reserving discharge for deliberate or egregious failures rather than errors of judgement.

Tanner Courrier & Anor v HKA Global LLC & Ors [2026] EWHC 1318 (KB), Mr Justice Dexter Dias, 3 June 2026.