Case number: 61
Article number: sales convention / 8
Thessaurs issue:
Country of decision: United Kingdom
Year of decision: 1994
Type of decision: Judicial decision

Case 61: MAL 8
Hong Kong: High Court of Hong Kong (Kaplan J.) 21 January 1994
Zhan Jiang E & T Dev Area Service Head Co. v. An Hau Company Limited
Original in English
Unpublished

(Abstract prepared by the Secretariat)

The plaintiff sued for damages on the ground that the defendant failed to deliver a shipment of wire rods. The defendant
requested a stay of the proceedings pursuant to article 8 MAL.

The plaintiff argued that there was no dispute to be referred to arbitration since the defendant in a letter addressed to the
plaintiff had admitted liability and offered to compensate the plaintiff. The defendant denied that this letter could be construed
as a sufficient admission of liability to justify refusing the stay and argued that it was unable to deliver the wire rods because it
could not accept a condition set unilaterally by the plaintiff after the conclusion of the contract that the defendant submit a
performance bond.

The court found that the letter referred to by the plaintiff did not constitute an unequivocal admission of liability but was merely
a commercial offer to settle. Even if the letter were accepted as an admission of liability, it could clearly not be construed as an
admission of the quantum of the claim. The court held that there was a dispute in the sense of article 8 MAL and granted the
stay of the proceedings sought by the defendant.