TCC affirms tribunal's discretion to determine alternative pleaded case (Secretary of State for Defence v Turner Estate Solutions)

Table of contents

• Judgment details
• Key points for practitioners
• Was the tribunal required to determine the matter complained of?
• Independently of the tribunal's view, what was the effect of the agreement?

Article summary

Arbitration analysis: On 10 February 2014, Ramsey J, sitting in the TCC, issued his judgment in relation to the Secretary of State for Defence’s application for relief pursuant to s 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (AA 1996). The challenge arose out of an agreement between the parties that the tribunal ‘ought to deal with’ a particular matter in an arbitration between the parties. In its challenge, the Secretary of State for Defence (the claimant) submitted that, pursuant to the parties’ agreement, the tribunal was required to deal with a particular matter in its award and its failure to do so amounted to a serious irregularity that had caused or will cause substantial injustice to the claimant. The court dismissed the claimant’s challenge and we analyse the key points of the judgment below.