After being condemned to pay some USD130m. for wrongful repudiation of a contract under an arbitral award, the Claimant government, STA, obtained from the Court an extension of the 28-day period for challenge. STA issued another challenge under s.68 after the expiry of the extension and on the same day applied for a retrospective extension of time, relying, inter alia, on the replacement of their Attorney General and their legal representatives. The Court dismissed the application on the bases that i) the delay was significant/substantial (27 days from first extension) with no explanation for it, nor evidence the Defendant/Tribunal contributed to it, ii) lack of prejudice to OFY was not a necessity for refusal, iii) the merits were intrinsically weak, and finally iv) refusal was not unfair, a first extension having already been granted.

BP paid some USD17m for crude oil to be delivered FOB in Egypt under contracts with the Defendants (JV partners in the oil field). Deliveries did not take place and BP sought recovery, principally by way of unjust enrichment. In finding in BP’s favour, the Court dismissed various arguments, including that the contracts were merely for rights to lift which, if not taken up, gave rise to no recovery; also time-bar arising out of BP’s GTCs which provided “any claims arising….shall be commenced within 2 years of…date…oil was delivered or, in the case of total loss, should have been delivered”. The Court ruled that there was neither delivery nor total loss so the time bar was inapplicable and in any event, any ambiguity would be resolved in favour of BP.

“The claimant bank, holder of the b/Is, applied under s.12 of the Arbitration Act to extend the 1 year Hague/Hague Visby Rules time for commencing suit (here arbitration) for misdelivery against the disponent owner carrier, KCH. The bank had started proceedings against the registered owner ignoring the bareboat c/p. The Court in its discretion rejected the application as no requirement of s.12 was satisfied: (i) a simple negligent omission (here the bank's solicitors wrongful identification of the carrier — albeit reinforced by KCH's misleading correspondence) could not be outside the reasonable contemplation of the parties; (ii) KCH's conduct did not amount to heavy fault and did not make it unjust to decline to extend as a considerable portion of the causative burden lay with the bank's solicitors who failed to act skilfully.”

“After the failure of P's claim against Q for damages for breach of a contract of shipment of natural organic juice due to Q's supply of alleged falsified and defective product. P challenged the arbitration which stated that A) 'The facts upon which P relies os to the alleged deliberate dilution of the juice were known to Pin late 2011 or at the latest by March 2012" 6) more than 7 years before P first suggested that the facts amounted to deliberate deceit". P accepted A) but submitted that 8) would cause "substantial injustice" as it would prevent amending its case to plead the tort of deceit. The Court dismissed P's application as no breach of s. 33 of the Act or serious irregularity was proven and the challenge concerned a finding which was "obiter" thus not able to alter the facts or to cause any prejudice to the amendment application.”

“After the Spanish Court condemned in 2019 the Master of the "Prestige", her Owners and Club for serious negligence against the environment Spain sought to register in England a Spanish enforcement order. In light of 2014 CA decision binding Spain to the arbitration agreement in the Club's Rules, the Club applied for an order under s.18 of the Arbitration Act appointing an arbitrator to determine a series of applications including a declaration that Spain is in breach of its obligation not to pursue the claims made in the Spanish proceedings other than by way of London arbitration and a declaration that the arbitral tribunal has jurisdiction to grant an anti-suit injunction, equitable compensation, damages in contract and in lieu of an injunction. The Court held that Spain lacks immunity (other than in respect of the claim for breach of contract) and that an arbitrator is to be appointed pursuant to s.18 in all other Club claims. The Court found that the legal issues raised by Spain about the remedies sought by the Club do not affect the arbitrator's jurisdiction (being germane to the merits) insofar as the Club showed that there was a "good arguable case" that the arbitrator would have the power to make the orders, i.e. that arguments were not obviously wrong such as to make it pointless to appoint one.”

“The Claimant German banks applied for summary judgment to enforce a US$97 M ship finance loan agreement, as amended by later agreements, against the Borrowers, two Liberian companies, and the Guarantor, their Greek beneficial owner. After verifying that the claim was validly served and the Defendants were aware of the proceedings and the application, a hearing took place remotely on 3'6 April but none of the Defendants appeared or was represented. The Claimants' application succeeded against both Borrowers and Guarantor as the Court found that (i) the Defendants had no real prospect of success in defending claims for unchallenged debts "undoubtedly due" and (ii) there was no compelling reason for the claims to be determined at trial. The Court was convinced that a summary judgment might be more readily enforced than a default judgment in other jurisdictions. The Court took the opportunity to end the uncertainty as to enforceability of English judgments in other EU Member states post-Brexit, by ruling that such judgments may be enforced in Greece pursuant to Article 67(2) of the 30.01.20 EU Council Withdrawal Agreement "so long as the proceedings were issued before the end of the transition period".”