Egypt / 06 August 2003 / Cairo Court of Appeal / John Brown Deutsche Engineering v. El Nasr Company for Fertilizers & Chemical Industries (SEMADCO) / 32/119
| Country | Egypt |
| Court | Egypt, Cairo Court of Appeal |
| Date | 06 August 2003 |
| Parties | John Brown Deutsche Engineering v. El Nasr Company for Fertilizers & Chemical Industries (SEMADCO) |
| Case number | 32/119 |
| Applicable NYC Provisions | III |
| Languages | English |
| Summary | On 26 March 2001, an award was issued following arbitration proceedings in Geneva, Switzerland, between John Brown Deutsche Engineering (“John Brown”) and El Nasr Company for Fertilizers & Chemical Industries (SEMADCO). John Brown requested enforcement of the award before the Chairman of the Cairo Court of Appeal, who rejected the request on 10 July 2002. On 21 July 2002, John Brown requested the Cairo Court of Appeal to overrule the Chairman’s order and grant enforcement to the award, arguing that the award met all requirements for enforcement and was not contrary to public policy in Egypt. SEMADCO objected, arguing that the Cairo Court of Appeal did not have jurisdiction to rule on the request for enforcement and that the award contravened public policy in Egypt. The Cairo Court of Appeal decided to overrule the Chairman’s order and grant enforcement to the award, finding that it had jurisdiction to rule on the request for enforcement. The Court noted that Egypt had acceded to the NYC and that, therefore, the NYC was applicable even when in contradiction with Egyptian laws. It added that Article III NYC provides that the contracting States shall not impose substantially more onerous conditions on the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards than are imposed on the enforcement of domestic arbitral awards. The Court found that Articles 297 and 298 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure, which are applicable to foreign arbitral awards and provide for the jurisdiction of the Courts of First Instance, impose more onerous conditions than those imposed by Articles 56 and 58 of the Egyptian Arbitration Law applicable to domestic arbitral awards. Accordingly, the Court held that enforcement of the award should be governed by Articles 56 and 58 of the Egyptian Arbitration Law, under which the Cairo Court of Appeal had jurisdiction to rule on the enforcement of the award. As John Brown had produced all the required documents and the award did not contravene public policy in Egypt, the Court of Appeal granted enforcement. |
| affirmed by : |
Attachment (1)
 Original Language Adobe Acrobat PDF |
