CLOUT abstract 128.

CLOUT
index.

Case 128: MAL 8(1)

Hong Kong: Court of Appeal (Nazareth V.P., Bokhary and Liu J.J.A.)

24 November 1995

Tai Hing Cotton Mill Limited v. Glencore Grain Rotterdam B.V. and another

Published in English: [1996] 1 Hong Kong Cases(HKC) 363

(Abstract prepared by Neil Kaplan Q.C.)

Glencore agreed to sell to Tai Hing 1,000 tonnes of raw cotton C&F Hong Kong. The contract provided for arbitration in Liverpool under the Rules of the Liverpool Cotton Association Limited and the contract contained a clause to the effect that the obtaining of an arbitration award should be a condition precedent to the right of either party to start legal proceedings in respect of any arbitrable dispute ("Scott v. Avery-clause").

Disputes arose and the judge granted summary judgement for specific performance of the contract of sale and dismissed Glencore's application for a stay under article 8 (1)MAL.

The Court of Appeal considered whether there were grounds for dismissing the application for stay under article 8(1) MAL, despite the existence of the arbitration agreement. Following Guandong Agriculture v. Conagra International (CLOUT Case 41) and Zhan Jian E&T Dev. Area Service Head Co v. An Hau (CLOUT Case 61), the Court of Appeal held that under article 8(1) MAL "the Court is not concerned with investigating whether the Defendant has an arguable basis for disputing the Claim." The Court of Appeal held further that "if a claim is made against him in a matter which is the subject of an arbitration agreement and he does not admit the claim then there is a dispute within the meaning of the Article."

The Court of Appeal set aside the summary judgement and granted a stay under article 8 (1)MAL.

This case is cited in Case 129.

From the UNITED NATIONS Document: "General Assembly: Distr. GENERAL: A/CN.9/SER.C/ABSTRACTS/9: of, 7 June 1996. Original : ENGLISH."

UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW
CASE LAW ON UNCITRAL TEXTS (CLOUT)
Abstracts of cases

This compilation of abstracts forms part of the system for collecting and disseminating information on court decisions and arbitral awards relating to Conventions and Model Laws that have emanated from the work of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Information about the features of that system and about its use is provided in the User Guide (A/CN.9/SER.C/GUIDE/1).

The abstracts have been prepared by national correspondents designated by their Governments. It should be noted that neither the national correspondents nor anyone else directly or indirectly involved in the operation of the system assumes any responsibility for any error or omission or other deficiency.

__________

Reproduced on this web site (www.interarb.com) with the kind permission of the United Nations, New York.
Database, typography, layout, etc. © interarb, 1999.