Appointment of Arbitrator

Hot on the heels of the Sino v Dana decision (reported in our blog on 16 November), the Commercial Court considered the question of notice of appointment of an arbitrator once again in Glencore Agriculture BV (formerly Glencore Grain BV) v Conqueror Holdings Limited [2017] EWHC 2893. 

This is another case where the Respondent (Glencore as Charterer) took no part in the arbitration and was unaware of the proceedings until it received the Award.

It is different, however, to the Sino v Dana case in that the Notice of Arbitration was sent to the email address of an employee of the Respondent and the issue was whether the Notice of Arbitration and Notice under Section 17 Arbitration Act 1996 (appointing the Claimant's arbitrator as sole arbitrator) were validly served on the Respondent by being sent to that individual's email address.  He was characterised as a relatively junior employee, and the Court distinguished the position where a Notice is sent to an individual