AA 1996, ss 68 and 69 overlapping challenges and appeals against LMAA award rejected (A v B; The ‘GA’)

Table of contents

• What are the practical implications of this case?
• What was the background?
• What did the court decide?
• Case details

Article summary

Arbitration analysis: Sir Ross Cranston, sitting in the Commercial Court, dismissed a series of applications under sections 68 and 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (AA 1996) respectively challenging an arbitration award for serious irregularity and seeking permission to appeal on points of law. The award had been made by a London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA) tribunal in a time charter dispute. The owners of the tanker, the ‘GA’, made their application under AA 1996, s 68 on the basis of six complaints, five of which concerned the tribunal’s treatment of issues in the arbitration, with the sixth being a complaint of inordinate delay in the production of the award. Three questions of law were raised in the AA 1996, s 69 application, all of which overlapped with the challenges under AA 1996, s 68.