CLOUTindex.
index.
Case 89: MAL 8
Hong Kong: High Court of Hong Kong (Kaplan J.)
16 December 1994
York Airconditioning & Refrigeration Inc. v. Lam Kwai Hung Trading as North Sea A/C
Elect. Eng. Co.
Original in English
Unpublished
(Abstract prepared by the Secretariat)
The plaintiff, a Hong Kong company, sold to the defendant, a Hong Kong agent of a Chinese company, water cooling machines that were to be installed in Beijing. The contract contained an arbitration clause for arbitration in Beijing under the CIETAC Rules. The defendant paid 30% of the price in Hong Kong, and for the balance a bill of exchange was drawn in Hong Kong on a Hong Kong party and accepted by the defendant. A dispute arose as to the quality of the goods and the defendant failed to honour the bill of exchange upon presentation. The seller sued in Hong Kong. A stay of court proceedings requested by the defendant was not granted by the Master of the court and the defendant appealed.
The court held that under the Chinese law applicable to the sales contract (the law of
the place of arbitration), the bill of exchange was to be treated as a separate contract,
which was not covered by the arbitration clause contained in the sales contract. In
addition, it was held under the Hong Kong law applicable to the bill of exchange that the
bill of exchange was a separate contract and a claim on the bill was not covered by the
arbitration clause contained in the sales contract. The application for a stay of the
court proceedings was dismissed and the claim of the defendant was referred to the
appropriate court.
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 1995
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.