Stay of judicial proceedings: case management stays

The English courts have accepted that a court has inherent jurisdiction to stay its own proceedings where the action depends upon the outcome of an arbitration between either the same or different parties. An obvious example is where a creditor brings judicial proceedings against the guarantor in advance of the determination of the primary debtor’s liability in ongoing arbitration proceedings.

The jurisdiction was recognised in Reichhold Norway ASA v Goldman Sachs International [1999] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 567 and has been exercised in a number of cases. However, the jurisdiction is to be exercised in rare circumstances only, given that a claimant has every right to take his case to court. The operation of the discretion has recently been considered by Aedit Abdullah JC in Singapore, in Gulf Hibiscus Ltd v Rex International Holding Ltd and Another [2017] SGHC 210.