Dubai Court of Cassation, Commercial Appeal No. 258 of 2025, judgment of 8 May 2025
Article 54(2) of the Federal Arbitration Law bars an annulment action brought more than 30 days after the award is notified to the party seeking annulment, and Article 44 requires the tribunal to notify each party by delivering a signed original or copy within 15 days of the award. The period runs only from that notification or delivery by the tribunal. It is not triggered by the party's knowledge of the award obtained in any other way, or by service of the award as an executory instrument in enforcement proceedings under the Civil Procedure Law.
A sub-contract containing an arbitration clause was made between two companies. One of them obtained an award in an arbitration under the Dubai International Arbitration Centre against a sole establishment, which said that it was not a party to the sub-contract, that it had never been properly served with the arbitration, and that an earlier final judgment had held it had no standing under that contract. It learned of the award only when its bank accounts were attached in enforcement proceedings, and then sued in the Court of Appeal to annul it. The Court of Appeal held the action time-barred under Article 54(2), counting the period from service of the enforcement papers, which had been sent to an email address that, according to the establishment, was not its own.
The Court of Cassation allowed the appeal. Article 44 requires the tribunal to notify every party by delivering a signed original or copy of the award within 15 days, and Article 54(2) bars annulment only after 30 days from notification of the award to the party seeking annulment. Read together, and given that the Arbitration Law is a special law aimed at certainty that the party has been informed, notification or delivery by the tribunal is a necessary step that starts the period; it cannot be replaced by any other step, and knowledge of the award obtained otherwise does not suffice. The award creditor did not claim that the tribunal had notified the establishment, and nothing in the file showed it. Service of the award as an executory instrument under the Civil Procedure Law did not start the period. The judgment was quashed and the case remitted to the Court of Appeal to decide the merits.
Parties who discover an award against them only at the enforcement stage, for example because they were not properly served in the arbitration, can still sue to annul it if the tribunal never notified them of the award. Proof that the tribunal delivered the award to every party is therefore decisive, because enforcement steps do not start the annulment deadline.
| Articles 44 and 54(2) of Federal Law No. 6 of 2018 on Arbitration — text of articles 44, 54 |
“اعلان هيئة التحكيم طالب البطلان بحكم التحكيم أو تسليمه صوره منه اجراء لازم وضروري لبدء سريان مدة عدم سماع دعوى البطلان ولا يستعاض عنه بأي اجراء أخر”Short quotation from the judgment as published by the court. The full judgment is on the court’s official service.
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