Portugal / 21 June 2005 / Portugal, Tribunal da Relação do Porto (Oporto Court of Appeal) / 0427126
| Country | Portugal |
| Court | Portugal, Tribunal da Relação do Porto (Oporto Court of Appeal) |
| Date | 21 June 2005 |
| Case number | 0427126 |
| Applicable NYC Provisions | I | II | III | IV |
| Source |
http://www.dgsi.pt (official website of the Instituto de Gestão Financeira e Equipamentos da Justiça I.P.) |
| Languages | English |
| Summary | In an arbitration seated in Poland, the arbitral tribunal rendered an award in favour of Company A (a Polish company) against Company B (a Portuguese company). Company A sought recognition of the arbitral award before the Tribunal Judicial da Comarca do Porto (Porto Court of First Instance) pursuant to Articles I, II, and IV NYC. The Tribunal Judicial da Comarca do Porto dismissed Company A’s request for recognition of the award holding that, under the Portuguese Code of Civil Procedure , the Tribunal da Relação do Porto had jurisdiction over such an application. Company A then appealed to the Tribunal da Relação do Porto (Porto Court of Appeal) on the grounds that (i) under the NYC (and contrary to Portuguese civil procedure) it is for the party against whom enforcement is sought to challenge recognition of the arbitral award and that the NYC limits the role of domestic tribunals to assessing the overall validity and enforceability of arbitral awards, (ii) Portuguese provisions dealing with recognition of foreign decisions were not applicable to the recognition and enforcement of the foreign arbitral award in this case because they were incompatible with the recognition procedure established by NYC Article III, and (iii) pursuant to Article III NYC, the court that has jurisdiction over recognition of foreign arbitral awards in Portugal is the court that has jurisdiction over the enforcement of domestic arbitral awards: in this case, the Tribunal Judicial da Comarca do Porto. The Tribunal da Relação do Porto overturned the decision of the Tribunal Judicial da Comarca Porto and held that the Tribunal Judicial da Comarca do Porto had jurisdiction over the recognition of foreign arbitral awards. The Tribunal da Relação do Porto noted that the NYC does not provide guidance as to which domestic tribunal has jurisdiction over the recognition of arbitral awards. It therefore applied the Portuguese Arbitration Act which provides that arbitral decisions rendered by arbitral tribunals seated outside Portugal have the same effect as domestic awards, and concluded that the Tribunal Judicial da Comarca do Porto had jurisdiction over the recognition proceedings. |
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