Ali Malek KC, Adam Temple and John Yap appear before the Supreme Court in SKAT v MCML

On 1 July 2026, the Supreme Court handed down judgment in SKAT v MCML Ltd [2026] UKSC 19, allowing SKAT’s appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal ([2025] EWCA Civ 371) that its 2022 fraud claim against MCML was barred by issue estoppel.

MCML argued that SKAT’s current claim was barred by an issue estoppel arising out of earlier litigation. A majority of the Court of Appeal (Newey and Popplewell LJJ) agreed, holding that Andrew Baker J’s reasoning in the earlier proceedings had necessarily established, in a manner binding on the parties, that SKAT could not pursue its claim as a result of the ‘Revenue Rule’.

Allowing SKAT’s appeal, the Supreme Court held that this went beyond the proper scope of issue estoppel. Because the earlier claim had alleged only negligence, the dismissal of it under the Revenue Rule could not estop SKAT from pursuing a differently constituted claim in the current litigation.

The judgment is a significant restatement of the boundary between issue estoppel, the doctrine of precedent, and the flexible jurisdiction to strike out abusive proceedings, and is likely to be of interest well beyond the context in which it arose.

Ali Malek KC, Adam Temple and John Yap appeared for the Respondent, MCML Ltd, instructed by Rosenblatt Law Limited.