Construction & Engineering - Horizon Scanner: Infrastructure, Construction, Energy, June 2024

DISPUTE RESOLUTION

In Jephson & another v Aviva Insurance Ireland DAC [2024] IEHC 309, the Court lifted a stay on court proceedings based partly on the respondent's conduct in the arbitration.

In 2020 the Court had granted a stay on proceedings to allow the parties to participate in an arbitration. This was based on an agreed order in which the respondent's solicitor undertook to participate in the arbitration in a timely and efficient fashion. The order stated that the plaintiffs were entitled to apply to lift the stay in the event of non-compliance with that undertaking.

When the plaintiff applied for the stay on proceedings to be lifted, the respondent argued that the parties had to proceed by way of arbitration once a referral was made in accordance with Article 8 of the UNCITRAL Model Law (the means by which the court is obliged to refer a dispute to arbitration).