Brazil / 17 March 2009 / Brazil, Superior Tribunal de Justiça (Superior Court of Justice) / General Electric do Brasil S/A v Tecnimed Paramedics Eletromedicina Comercial Ltda. / Special Appeal 1.015.194
Country | Brazil |
Court | Brazil, Superior Tribunal de Justiça (Superior Court of Justice) |
Date | 17 March 2009 |
Parties | General Electric do Brasil S/A v Tecnimed Paramedics Eletromedicina Comercial Ltda. |
Case number | Special Appeal 1.015.194 |
Source |
http://www.stj.jus.br (Official website of the Superior Tribunal de Justiça) |
Languages | Portuguese |
Summary | General Electric do Brasil S/A (GE) and Tecnimed Paramedics Eletromedicina Comercial Ltda. (Tecnimed) entered into representation, distribution and sale contracts for the years from 1999 to 2001. The contracts contained an arbitration agreement providing for arbitration under the auspices of the Inter-American Commercial Arbitration Commission. A dispute arose and the parties argued the validity of the arbitration agreement before the Brazilian and American courts stating that the contracts were no longer in force at the time the dispute arose. Meanwhile, an award was rendered in Miami, USA. Tecnimed filed a claim before a Brazilian court seeking damages and a declaration that it was not bound to pay the amount ordered by the award. The Court of First Instance dismissed the claims without prejudice due to the existence of an arbitration agreement. Tecnimed appealed to the Tribunal de Justiça do Rio Grande do Sul (Rio Grande do Sul Court of Appeals) who reversed the decision, characterizing the parties’ contract as an adhesion contract. It found that the formal requirements for a valid arbitration agreement in an adhesion contract had not been met, thus, the arbitration agreement was not valid. GE appealed to the Superior Tribunal de Justiça (Superior Court of Justice) arguing that the arbitration agreement was valid and binding and that the decision of the Tribunal de Justiça do Rio Grande do Sul violated the Brazilian Arbitration Act, the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, the 1975 Inter-American Convention on International Commercial Arbitration and Article II(1)(3) NYC. The Superior Tribunal de Justiça found the Special Appeal to be inadmissible on procedural grounds. It held that GE was precluded from raising arguments based on the NYC because it had previously not raised any of these objections before lower courts. |
Attachment (1)
Original Language Adobe Acrobat PDF |