In judgments released in appeals arising from an application to set aside two International Chamber of Commerce arbitral awards (“Setting-Aside Application”), the Singapore Court of Appeal decided that:
(a) An arbitral tribunal’s ruling on the substance of a claim in the face of an unresolved jurisdictional challenge against that claim provided grounds for setting-aside under the International Arbitration Act and UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration;
(b) An arbitral tribunal’s award on costs, which was premised upon the validity of a prior merits ruling which had been set aside, should consequentially also be set aside; and
(c) The costs guidelines in Appendix G to the Supreme Court Practice Directions will continue to guide the assessment of pre-transfer costs in cases transferred from the General Division of the High Court to the Singapore International Commercial Court.
The first two holdings were made in CBX and Anor v CBZ and Ors [2021] SGCA(I) 3 (the Court of Appeal’s judgment concerning the substantive merits of the Setting-Aside Application), and the third in CBX and Anor v CBZ and Ors [2021] SGCA(I) 4 (the Court of Appeal’s judgment concerning the SICC’s assessment of costs in the Setting-Aside Application).
Our Partners Wendy Lin and Monica WY Chong acted for the successful appellants before the Court of Appeal.
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