WADSWORTH AND ANOTHER V PORT OF LONDON AUTHORITY

[2015] EWHC 2229 (Ch), High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, Mr Justice Henderson, 24 March 2015

Arbitration – Disclosure- Appropriate scope of disclosure - Arbitration Act 1996, section 69

This was the appeal on a question of law of the arbitrator's decision on a question of disclosure. It arose in the context of an arbitration to review the licence fee for a floating structure known as Harpy, moored at New Concordia Wharf in London and consisting of a pontoon with a two-storey residential structure. The Port of London had granted a licence to the appellants to retain and maintain Harpy, with the licence fee to be reviewed every five years, disputes to be settled by one arbitrator. The licence agreement also required the Port of London Authority to disclose similar licences it had granted. Upon appeal on a question of law, the judge held that the arbitrator had obviously erred in law in not reading the word "and" in the expression "residential and pontoon" as "and/or", thus restricting disclosure to residential accommodation and excluding houseboats moored to pontoons. Giving the word "and" the widest possible construction was correct as it would give the arbitrator the largest possible material on which to base the licence fee review decision.