Egypt / 26 March 2003 / Cairo Court of Appeal / Hamdy Mohamed Abdel-Al v. Faj Henwa Berenger Corporation / 10/119
| Country | Egypt |
| Court | Egypt, Cairo Court of Appeal |
| Date | 26 March 2003 |
| Parties | Hamdy Mohamed Abdel-Al v. Faj Henwa Berenger Corporation |
| Case number | 10/119 |
| Applicable NYC Provisions | V | III | V(1)(e) |
| Languages | English |
| Summary | On 24 May 2001, an award was issued in South Korea under the Rules of the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board. The award ordered Hamdy Mohamed Abdel-Al (“Hamdy Mohamed”) to pay damages to the Faj Henwa Berenger Corporation. On 10 February 2002, Hamdy Mohamed sought an annulment of the award before the Cairo Court of Appeal. The Cairo Court of Appeal held that it lacked jurisdiction to rule on Hamdy Mohamed’s request. It noted that the application of the Egyptian Arbitration Law is limited by Article 1 to arbitration proceedings held in Egypt and international arbitration proceedings which the parties had agreed to submit to the Egyptian Arbitration Law. The Court added that it is a general principle that the jurisdiction of State Courts is limited to requests for setting aside arbitral awards which are issued within the State’s territory and that, as Egypt had acceded to the NYC by Presidential Decree No. 171/1959, the NYC is applicable as is any other law of the Egyptian State, even when it contradicts the Egyptian Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure or Arbitration Law. The Court deducted from Articles III and V(1)(e) NYC that foreign arbitral awards are linked to the legal regime of the State where they were issued and that, therefore, only the Courts of the place of the arbitration have jurisdiction to rule on requests for setting aside an award. Given that the Parties agreed that the award was issued in South Korea and neither alleged that the arbitration was governed by the Egyptian Arbitration Law, the Court of Appeal held that it lacked jurisdiction to rule on Hamdy Mohamed’s request. |
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