Proceedings against a new defendant may be dismissed as an abuse of process where the plaintiff is in substance seeking to re-litigate an issue lost in earlier proceedings against a different defendant, even though the new defendant cannot claim the benefit of res judicata or issue estoppel. The addition of claims based on slightly different factual bases (here, financial figures for additional years) will not save proceedings from being characterised as an abuse where the core issue of reliance remains the same. The fact that claims could and should have been brought in the earlier proceedings is relevant to, but not determinative of, the abuse of process inquiry.
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