Arbitration
Stonegate Farmers Ltd v Heavey [2026] EWHC 2519 (Comm)
The Commercial Court ruled on the claimant Stonegate Farmers Ltd’s challenge under s 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (AA 1996) against the second award of the sole arbitrator, pending determination of a related challenge in a parallel arbitration. The claim concerned non-release of the defendant farmer’s ‘Lion Code’ following termination of an exclusive egg supply agreement. The court found that the arbitrator’s conclusion that an implied term required release of the Lion Code constituted a serious irregularity under s 68(2)(a), AA 1996 because the implied term had never been raised by either party and Stonegate was not given a reasonable opportunity to address it, partly due to undisclosed reliance on findings in a separate Chucks Farm arbitration. However, whether this irregularity caused substantial injustice could not yet be determined, because a remission award in the Chucks Farm dispute, which would otherwise strongly indicate the arbitrator would have reached the same conclusion even if acting fairly, was itself subject to an ongoing further
