Jun 2016
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
COURT OF APPEAL
INTERLOCUTORY APPEAL – ARBITRATION – ANTI-ARBITRATION INJUNCTION – FOREIGN ARBITRAL PROCEEDINGS – ARBITRATION ACT, 2013 – INTERPRETATION OF S. 3(2)(B) OF ARBITRATION ACT, 2013 – WHETHER COURT HAS JURISDICTION UNDER ARBITRATION ACT, 2013 TO GRANT ANTI-ARBITRATION INJUNCTION SO AS TO RESTRAIN PARTY FROM PURSUING FOREIGN ARBITRAL PROCEEDINGS
This was an Appeal against the refusal to grant an anti-arbitration injunction against the Respondent, Cukurova Holdings A.S. (“CH”). The Applicant, Sonera Holdings B.V. (“Sonera”), brought the Application in the context of new arbitration claims brought by CH, which Sonera contended amounted to a collateral attack on a previously registered arbitration award. In refusing the injunction, the Learned Judge in the Court below found that Section 3(2)(b) of the Arbitration Act, 2013 (the “Act”), which stated that “the Court shall not interfere in the arbitration of a dispute, save as expressly provided in this Act” meant that the Court could no longer interfere in ongoing arbitral proceedings by the grant of an injunction.