CASE OF THE MONTH February 2022

After continuing more than two years, we have succeeded to get an Arbitration Award from DIAC for one of the important construction companies in the UAE, amounting to AED 50 Million.

And in December 2021, we obtained a ratification judgment on the arbitration award from Dubai Court. After that, the respondent applied to the appeal court to nullify the arbitration award for many reasons such as:

• The respondent alleged he is not part of the arbitration agreement.
• The arbitral award is invalid because it was issued by arbitrators who were not appointed in accordance with the rules agreed upon between the parties.
• The defendant claims that he did not sign the arbitration clause; the arbitral award is invalid, and thus the arbitral tribunal is not competent to hear the case.
• Annulment of the arbitration award because the Claimant did not resort to the settlement before arbitration.
• The arbitral award is invalid due to the long consideration period of the arbitration case before the arbitral tribunal.
• The arbitral award is invalid due to the arbitral tribunal ruling for the plaintiff with large amounts of interest that exceeded the amount of the claim.
• The arbitration award is invalid because the plaintiff’s representative does not have the authority to sign the arbitration agreement.

We attended before the Court of Appeal and presented our defense of all the defendant’s allegations, and we were successful in convincing the court that all of these allegations are not true and that all arbitration procedures are valid.

The Dubai Court of Appeal rejected all of the defendant’s allegations to invalidate the arbitration award by paying them an amount of AED 50 Million to our client.

The defendant was not satisfied with the appeal ruling and went to the Dubai Court of Cassation to appeal the ruling of the Court of Appeal, with the same reasons and allegations he mentioned before the Court of Appeal.

We also attended before the Dubai Court of Cassation. We submitted all our defense for the validity of the arbitration procedures and our client’s entitlement to the amount of AED 50 Million.

Recently, the Court of Cassation decided to reject all the defendant’s claims and confirmed the validity of all arbitration procedures and the entitlement of our client to the total amount with interest was determined by the arbitral tribunal.

Case handled by Mr. Abdelaziz Alhanaee.