Greensill Wins Australian Anti-Anti-Suit Injunction Against Marsh

The Federal Court of Australia has granted Greensill Bank AG and DR Michael Frege, its insolvency administrator, a far-reaching anti-anti-suit injunction restraining insurance broker Marsh Ltd (UK) and Marsh Pty Ltd (Australia) from pursuing their English High Court proceedings seeking to block Greensill’s Australian claims.

The dispute stems from the collapse of the Greensill group and parallel Australian proceedings involving over AU$7 billion in alleged insurance losses. Marsh sought anti-suit relief in England to prevent Greensill from suing it in Australia, relying on exclusive jurisdiction clauses in brokerage engagement letters governed by English law. After the English Court mostly refused interim relief—finding Marsh had not shown a binding jurisdiction clause except as to one 2018 agreement—Greensill joined Marsh to six existing Australian proceedings and launched a seventh. Marsh then amended its English claim to seek mandatory orders compelling Greensill to stay those Australian suits and added a damages claim for breach of the alleged clauses.

The Australian Federal Court found that these English proceedings had a “tendency to interfere” with matters already regularly before the Federal Court and were “vexatious and oppressive” in substance, as complete relief was available domestically. Exercising both the Court’s implied and equitable jurisdiction under s 23 of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth), the Court ruled that comity considerations did not outweigh the need to protect the Court’s own processes. The injunction will remain in place until final determination of Greensill’s claims against Marsh in Australia, effectively freezing the London action pending the five-month Australian trial set for August 2026.

Read the decision here.

Professionals involved:

• Vanessa Whittaker SC and Kunal Sharma of Banco Chambers and Christopher Tran (instructed by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan) for Greensill Bank AG and Dr M Frege

• Matthew Darke SC, Charles Colquhoun SC and Rico Jedrzejczyk of Tenth Floor Chambers (instructed by Johnson Winter Slattery) for Marsh Ltd and Marsh Pty Ltd