Hundreds of heirs of Brazilian orange farmers have lost an appeal in a dispute over an alleged cartel after their solicitors applied for only three of them to have grants of representation.

A group of 1,548 independent Brazilian orange farmers is suing the estate of Brazil’s ‘Orange King,’ billionaire José Luis Cutrale, in London over alleged anti-competitive practises.

The defendants made a strike out application against 639 of the claimants, who brought claims as heirs. The High Court was told none of those claimants had obtained a grant of representation in this jurisdiction when the claims were instituted. Dame Clare Moulder struck out their claims, concluding the heirs could not pursue their claims in this jurisdiction in the absence of grants of representation here. 

The claimants appealed on the basis they should be given time to obtain grants. Jeremy Evans, a solicitor with claimant firm Pogust Goodhead, told the High Court in 2022 that his firm ‘takes these matters extremely seriously’ and had ‘despatched a team of London-based staff to Brazil’. 

‘That team and others in my firm are currently obtaining relevant documents from personal representatives and/or heirs of any deceased individuals, with a view to obtaining English grants of representation as soon as possible for both the Deceased Original Claimants and the Deceased Additional Claimants’, Evans said. 

‘My firm has also engaged specialist probate lawyers in England to assist in applying to the court’s Probate Registry. The outcome of this work is that claims of any claimants who died before the claim form was issued, or whose estates may not have obtained the requisite grants of representation in England, will be regularised as soon as possible. The typical turnaround time for obtaining a grant of representation is around 12 weeks.’

Dame Clare Moulder’s subsequent decision to strike out rather than to allow them to obtain grants of representation was wrong as a matter of principle, the claimants said. But in Flavio De Carvalho Pinto Viegas & Ors v The Estate of José Luis Cutrale & Anor the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the appeal.  

Lord Justice Newey said: ‘Despite saying in March 2022 that such matters were taken “extremely seriously” and that “claims of any claimants who died before the claim form was issued, or whose estates may not have obtained the requisite grants of representation in England, will be regularised as soon as possible”, the claimants had made just three such applications a year and a half later.’

Pogust Goodhead partner Evans, told the Gazette: 'On behalf of our claimants, Pogust Goodhead are grateful to the Court of Appeal in refusing to strike out around 1,300 claimants who were added to the claim against Cutrale on limitation grounds.

'We note that there are a small number of claimants who can no longer continue with their claim on behalf of deceased relatives, due to their failure to obtain English grants of representation before the proceedings were commence. There are implications of this ruling which are clearly of general public importance and we are considering our next steps.'