CLOUTindex.
index.
Case 33: MAL 8
Canada: Federal Court of Appeal (Marceau, Desjardins and Décary JJ.A.)
29 May 1992
Ruhrkohle Handel Inter GMBH and National Steel Corp. et al. v. Fednav Ltd. and Federal Pacific (Liberia) Ltd. and Federal Calumet (The)
Published in English and French: 3 Federal Court Reports 1992, 98
Commented on by Tetley in [1993] Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, 238
In order for the court to grant a stay of proceedings pursuant to article 8 MAL, the party requesting the stay must satisfy the court that the request was made in a timely fashion and that the request was made to the court, not just to the other party.
The parties entered into a charter-party which contained an arbitration clause. The charter-party was subsequently breached. The appellants asked the respondents for an extension of time to "commence suit and/or arbitration". The respondents granted an extension of time to commence arbitration only. The appellants filed a statement of claim for damages which made no mention of arbitration. The respondents filed a statement of defence and counterclaim, and requested a stay of proceedings. Both the Senior Prothonotary and the Trial Division refused the appellants' request that the action be stayed. The appellants appealed.
The court found that while article 8 MAL which is enacted by the Commercial Arbitration
Act, Revised Statutes of Canada 1985, c.C-34.6 requires the court to grant a stay of
proceedings and refer the matter to arbitration, such an order is not made as of right.
Certain conditions must first be met. The party seeking such an order must demonstrate
that a request for arbitration was made in a timely fashion (not later than when
submitting their first statement on the substance of the dispute). The court noted that
the request for arbitration required in article 8 MAL is a request to the court, not just
to the other party. No such request was made to the court here and, therefore, no stay was
granted.
This case is cited in Case 118.
Additional Information published in later CLOUT issue (on "9 February 2000"):
Abstract published in English: [1995] Model Arbitration Law Quarterly Reports, Vol. 1, issue 3, 99
Text of the court decision published in English: [1995] Model Arbitration Law Quarterly Reports, Vol. 1, issue 3, 103
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.
__________
Copyright © United Nations 1993
All rights reserved.
Reproduced on this web site (www.interarb.com) with the kind permission of the United Nations, New York.
Database, typography, layout, etc. © interarb, 1999.