Case number: 40
Article number: model arbitration law / 7; 11(4)
Thessaurs issue:
Country of decision: United Kingdom
Year of decision: 1992
Type of decision: Arbitral award

Case 40: MAL 7; 11(4)
Hong Kong: High Court of Hong Kong (Kaplan J.) 30 July 1992
Pacific International Lines (PTE) Ltd. & Another v. Tsinlien Metals and Minerals Co. Ltd.
Published in English: 1992, Hong Kong Law Digest, G5; excerpts of judgement in The Arbitration and Dispute Resolution
Law Journal, Part 4, December 1992, 240

(Abstract prepared by Kaplan J.)

The plaintiff, owner and manager of a vessel which was chartered to the defendant, sought payment of damages for breach of
the charter-party with the defendant. When the defendant failed to pay, the plaintiff appointed an arbitrator pursuant to an
arbitration clause contained in the charter-party. The defendant failed to appoint a second arbitrator and the plaintiff applied in
accordance with article 11(4) MAL for the court to appoint a second arbitrator.

Although the charter-party was not signed by both parties, the court found that there was a charter-party between the plaintiff
and the defendant, since there was no doubt from the facts and the pre-voyage communications that the defendant had
chartered the vessel of the plaintiff and had paid also certain sums to the plaintiff in accordance with that charter-party. The
court concluded that article 7 MAL requiring a written agreement to arbitrate had been complied with and gave the defendant
seven days to appoint a second arbitrator, otherwise the court was to appoint him.