By Christopher Spink

LONDON, Nov 4 (IFR) - The UK Court of Appeal has upheld a decision by the Bank of Portugal to leave US$850m of claims by a vehicle linked with Goldman Sachs in the rump of Banco Espirito Santo, rather than transfer them to the failed bank's successor Novo Banco.

The US bank and fellow creditors including the New Zealand Superannuation Fund had initially succeeded in overturning the Bank of Portugal's original August 2014 restructuring decision at the High Court in London last year regarding special purpose loan vehicle Oak Finance.

The appeal court judgment, handed down this morning, reverses that successful challenge and means Goldman and related creditors now face deeper losses on their investment, which was provided to BES just before it failed two and a half years ago.

The latest ruling also said that the Bank of Portugal's decision under Portuguese law should be challenged in Portugal rather than in London, even though it related to the banking resolution and recovery directive, which applies across the European Union.

"The Court of Appeal's judgment highlights the obvious danger, indeed potential chaos, of different courts interpreting the same decision of a single resolution authority in different ways," said Stuart McNeill, a partner at Pinsent Masons who represented Novo Banco.

Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

(Reporting by Christopher Spink; Editing by Ian Edmondson)