Jurisdiction

Stay of proceedings

The decision of Deputy High Court Judge Julian Flaux QC in El Nasharty v J Sainsbury plc [2003] EWHC 2195 (Comm) raised the question of whether the court was required to stay its proceedings so that the dispute could go to arbitration. This was one of the many cases which have arisen under the mandatory stay rule in s9 Arbitration Act 1996 where there has been disagreement as to whether or not the arbitration clause extended to the dispute in question. Ultimately this proved to be one of the relatively rare cases in which the court was able to resolve the problem by reference to the terms of the arbitration clause itself without having to reach a decision on the background facts.