Securing the BVI's first recorded judgment on an interim damages order under part 17 of the CPR.

On Thursday 2 October 2025, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in BVIHCMAP2023/0025: Sancus Financial Holdings Limited (In Liquidation) & Ors v Chad Holm reaffirming the order of Justice Wallbank in granting an interim payment order on the account of damages under r17.6 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). 

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appellants' appeal against a US$16.5m interim damages order and held that Pt 17 of the CPR confers upon the Court a broad discretionary jurisdiction to grant interim remedies at any stage of proceedings. The Court of Appeal recognised the English courts' developed guidance on the manner of exercising judicial discretion when determining whether to award interim damages and the appropriate quantum of that interim award and emphasised the three-stage methodology: first, estimating the likely amount of damages awarded on final judgment, second, determining a reasonable proportion of that likely amount, and third, considering relevant discretionary factors.

This landmark judgment provides important guidance on how the British Virgin Islands (BVI) Court should exercise its power under CPR 17.6 and specifically how that power should be exercised in commercial cases where the defendant's liability for damages has been established but before quantum of damages is finally assessed at a substantive hearing. In this judgment the BVI court has provided a clear and practical framework for approaching interim damages and the BVI's alignment with the English principles on the Court's discretionary jurisdiction to grant interim damages.

For practitioners, the message is clear: once liability is in the applicant's favour and where the court can safely conclude that the claimant will recover at least a certain sum, and is likely to recover more, that 'irreducible minimum' may properly form the basis for an interim payment. In those circumstances, interim payments are a real prospect—even in complex, high-value, development-stage ventures (in this instance, quantum of damages was linked to the value of a start-up digital bank). Notwithstanding the absence of cross examination, expert evidence, including that of the respondent's, can also be decisive factor. 

Our BVI and Hong Kong teams acted for the successful Respondent, Chad Holm. 

Our team was led by Robert Levy of 3 Stone Buildings and consisted of Oliver Clifton, John Crook, Colleen Farrington, Harry Oulton, Christina Lo and Yegane Guley.