Paal Wilson & Co. A/S v. Partenrederei Hannah Blumenthal - Q.B.D. (Com. Ct.) (Staughton J.) - The Times, 10 July 1981

Arbitration - Whether frustrated by delay

Mr. Justice Staughton has followed the Master of the Rolls in The Splendid Sun [1981] 2 Lloyd’s Rep. 29 in ruling that there can be frustration of an arbitration agreement where it is delayed by the mutual default of both parties. His lordship granted a declaration to that effect in this case where points of claim had been served in 1974 relating to a business transaction which occurred in 1969. The application of the rule of frustration to arbitrations was not ruled out by the Bremer Vulkan case.