Conflicting Awards In Parallel Arbitral Proceedings

Summary

In W v AW [2021] HKCFI 1707 (date of decision: 17 June 2021), a case described by the court as "highly unusual", an arbitral award was held to be manifestly invalid.

The award in question contained findings that were inconsistent with the findings made in an earlier award, on the same issues, and in a parallel arbitration proceeding between the same parties. Material to the court's decision was that there was a common arbitrator in the two sets of arbitral proceedings, and who had made contradictory findings, failed to deal with or explain the inconsistency, and failed to give the parties an opportunity to be heard before making the inconsistent findings against them.