Three Rivers District Council and Others v Governor and Company of the Bank of England

The factual background to this appeal was set out in Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 70–72 of the Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance and concerned the 1991 collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) banking group and the role therein of the Bank of England, as UK banking regulator and supervisor at the time. The Appellants in this appeal were Plaintiffs (numbering some 6,000 persons) in an action against the Bank of England for damages based upon the tort of misfeasance in public office. The Plaintiffs were depositors in the UK branches of Bank of Credit and Commerce International who had lost monies as a result of the BCCI group's collapse, together with BCCI SA (in liquidation) as equitable assignee of the depositors' claims. This was an appeal from an order of Clarke J made on 2 October, 1997 which struck out the Plaintiffs' claim against the Bank of England and dismissed the proceedings, on the basis that the essential elements of the tort of misfeasance in public office were not present and thus the claim was bound to fail.