An investor who has been trying to recover her money from a Bermuda-based fund company for the past three years with no success has received a boost in her battle to recoup the cash after the Bermuda Court of Appeal upheld a ruling that it pay her a minimum of $5 million plus interest.

Regula Dobie, a Swiss national residing in Kenya, whose attempts to withdraw her funds from Interinvest since mid-2007 had proved unsuccessful, expressed her relief that an application for leave to appeal by Interinvest (Bermuda) Ltd. and Canadian money manager Dr. Hans Black was dismissed by the court last week.

Mrs. Dobie, who is represented by attorney Jai Pachai of Wakefield Quin, will now pursue the assets in the form of Black's Quebec estate which he put up as security for any judgments she won against Interinvest.

"She is very happy that the application for leave to appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal and that she is now in a position to execute her judgment against assets that were owned by Dr. Black," said Mr. Pachai.

He said Mrs. Dobie hoped to recover all or some of her money in a relatively short space of time.

Mrs. Dobie transferred $4 million to Interinvest's account at Butterfield Bank in Bermuda in November 2004 and an additional $2 million in September 2005, all of which was supposed to be invested in the Bermuda-domiciled Hedge Hog and Conserve Fund, which is managed by Interinvest (Bermuda) Ltd. After trying to redeem her investment since May 31, 2007 without any success, she filed a complaint at Bermuda Supreme Court on September 24, 2008 alleging breach of contract against Interinvest (Bermuda) Ltd. and fraudulent misrepresentation against Black.

On June 1, 2009, Justice Ian Kawaley determined that Interinvest (Bermuda) Ltd. had no defence to failing to repay the monies sent by Mrs. Dobie and granted her application for summary judgment against the company in a minimum amount of $5 million, plus interest and damages to be assessed at a later date.

Justice Kawaley declined to award the entire $6 million being claimed because of a lack of evidence about exchange rates for Swiss francs, the currency in which Dobie's investment was made, but he left the door open for the amount to be increased.

In the same ruling, Justice Kawaley granted Black's application to set aside a default judgment for 7.3 million Swiss Francs that Mrs. Dobie had obtained against him on January 16, 2009 after he failed to enter an appearance in the case but only if he provided security of $1 million within 28 days of the ruling.

Interinvest (Bermuda) Ltd. was granted leave to appeal on April 7, 2010 on the grounds that fresh or additional evidence might be admitted before the Court of Appeal based on its argument that Amina Holdings Ltd., which is controlled by Mrs. Dobie, was the correct plaintiff rather than Mrs. Dobie herself.

On granting leave to appeal, Justice Kawalay said such leave was only granted, "because the applicant's attorneys had the ingenuity to construct an arguable appeal in circumstances where the merits in terms of general notions of justice lie heavily on the respondent's side".

Twelve days later, Mrs. Dobie filed an objection that Interinvest (Bermuda) Ltd. was not entitled to rely on fresh evidence based on the fact that the applicant could have produced it at the initial summary judgment application hearing.

The court found it was not satisfied that the introduction of fresh evidence would materially affect the outcome of the case regarding the question of who provided the $6 million investment, but the receipt of money and failure to repay it were beyond dispute.

In his judgment dated June 17, 2010, Appeal Judge Sir Austin Ward, wrote: "The advancement of technical points which have more value as student examination questions should not be encouraged where the result would be to produce more delay and would defeat the ends of justice."

Meanwhile, in a separate matter, Bermuda Police have recommended that Black be criminally prosecuted for allegedly defrauding Mrs. Dobie of $6 million after she filed a complaint against him.