Serious irregularity

The right to be heard

In Margulead Ltd v Exide Technologies [2004] EWHC 1019 (Comm) Colman J considered whether the claimant in an arbitration is always entitled to ‘the last word’ and whether a failure to address an argument raised by a party amounted to a sufficient reason to set aside an award under s68 of the Arbitration Act 1996. The decision also considered whether a challenge to an award for serious irregularity based on an alleged failure by the tribunal to deal with all the issues put to it (s68(2)(d)) could be mounted without seeking to apply for an order from the court under s70(4) to ask the tribunal to supply further reasons. The decision is yet another failed attempt to have an award set aside under s68 for serious irregularity, and shows (along with Torch Offshore LLC v Cable Shipping Inc [2004] EWHC 787 (Comm) (Arbitration Law Monthly (Volume 4: September (pp1–4))) that the courts will often scrutinise s70 carefully to see whether the right to object has been lost. The case is discussed by Louis Flannery.