Egypt / 29 June 2003 / Cairo Court of Appeal / Nile Cotton Ginning Company v. Cargill Limited / 129/118
| Country | Egypt |
| Court | Egypt, Cairo Court of Appeal |
| Date | 29 June 2003 |
| Parties | Nile Cotton Ginning Company v. Cargill Limited |
| Case number | 129/118 |
| Applicable NYC Provisions | V | III | V(1)(e) |
| Languages | English |
| Summary | Pursuant to an arbitration agreement dated 30 October 1998 concluded by Nile Cotton Ginning Company (“Nile Cotton”) and Cargill Limited (“Cargill”), the latter initiated arbitration proceedings under the auspices of the Arbitration Administration Committee at the American Fats and Oils Association. On 15 December 1999, an arbitral award was issued in the United States of America, ordering Nile Cotton to pay damages to Cargill. On 27 December 2001, Nile Cotton filed a lawsuit before the Cairo Court of Appeal, requesting the suspension of the enforcement of the award and its setting aside. The Court decided that it lacked jurisdiction to rule on the challenge made by Nile Cotton. It noted that the application of the Egyptian Arbitration Law is limited by its Article 1 to arbitration proceedings held in Egypt and international arbitration proceedings which the Parties agreed to submit to the Egyptian Arbitration Law and that this position corresponds to Egypt’s commitment under the NYC to recognize and enforce foreign arbitral awards as well as to the Parties’ agreement to hold arbitration proceedings outside of Egypt without submitting them to the Egyptian Arbitration Law, which means that they agreed that their dispute should escape the jurisdiction of the Egyptian Courts. The Court deducted from Articles III and V(1)(e) NYC that only the Courts of the State where the award was issued have jurisdiction to rule on requests for its setting aside. Given that the provisions of the NYC are applicable even when in contradiction with the Egyptian Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure and Arbitration Law, the rule that Egyptian Courts lack jurisdiction to rule on requests for the setting aside of foreign arbitral awards is a rule relating to jurisdiction and may be applied by the Court sua sponte. Since the arbitral award challenged by Nile Cotton was issued in the United States of America and the Parties did not agree on the application of the Egyptian Arbitration Law, this law did not apply to the arbitral award. |
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