Arbitration

The Commercial Court ruled on applications made in proceedings concerning a claim by the claimant company that a sum of money it had over-paid in respect of its purchase of a vessel had been corruptly diverted to a company then owned by Colonel Gadaffi’s fifth son. The claimant had brought arbitration proceedings and its nominated arbitrator had been appointed. However, prior to those proceedings commencing, the defendant company had been dissolved in the Marshall Islands. The court, among other things, dismissed the claimant’s application for an order, under s 18 of the Arbitration Act 1996 that, notwithstanding that dissolution, the arbitral tribunal had been validly constituted. The court held that it did not have the power to give such a direction where there had been no failure of the appointment procedure.