Ras Al Khaimah Court of Cassation, Commercial Appeal No. 10 of 15 JY, judgment of 5 April 2020
An annulment action is not an appeal and cannot reopen the merits; the grounds in Article 53 of the Arbitration Law are exhaustive. Evidence, experts and whether to stay the arbitration pending another case are for the tribunal. What an award must state depends on the parties' agreement and the chosen rules, not on the requirements for court judgments, so omitting the arbitrators' nationality and addresses does not void it. Filing for annulment does not stay enforcement; a stay is discretionary, and missing the 15-day time limit for deciding it has no sanction.
The appellant company sought a stay and annulment of an award of 21 November 2019 issued in two arbitrations before the Conciliation and Commercial Arbitration Centre of the Ras Al Khaimah Chamber of Commerce. The Ras Al Khaimah Court of Appeal dismissed the action, and the company appealed in cassation on several grounds. The Court of Cassation restated that an annulment action is not an appeal and cannot be used to re-examine the dispute or the tribunal's reasoning, because Article 53 of the Federal Arbitration Law lists the grounds of annulment exhaustively. Under Article 43 the tribunal may stay the arbitration where a preliminary question outside its jurisdiction must first be decided, and whether that is necessary is for the tribunal; matters of evidence, including appointing experts, assessing documents and whether to await a pending appeal before the Court of Cassation, are within its discretion under Article 34(1). Arbitration rests on the parties' consent and most of the Arbitration Law's provisions are supplementary, save for specific fundamental guarantees. The contents of an award are governed by the parties' agreement and not by the rules for court judgments; as neither the arbitration agreement nor the Centre's rules required the award to state the arbitrators' nationality and addresses, their omission did not make it void. Under Article 56(2), bringing an annulment action does not suspend enforcement; the court may order a stay at a party's request, and the 15-day period for deciding the request carries no sanction. The tribunal may rule on objections to its own jurisdiction (Articles 19, 20 and 25 of the Law and Article 5(2) of the Centre's rules), and a party that continues without objecting waives its objection. Finally, the company had not argued before the Court of Appeal that the respondent's signatory lacked capacity to sign the contract containing the arbitration clause, so it could not raise this for the first time in cassation. The appeal was dismissed.
The judgment narrows the technical attacks available against awards from RAK Chamber arbitrations: formal omissions in the award, case-management choices of the tribunal and late complaints about signatory capacity will not succeed. It also confirms that filing an annulment action does not stop enforcement unless the court orders a stay.
| Articles 19, 20, 25, 34, 43, 53, 56 of Federal Law No. 6 of 2018 on Arbitration — text of articles 19, 20, 25, 34, 43, 53, 56 |
“دعوى بطلان حكم التحكيم ليست طعناً عليه بالاستئناف. نطاقها. لا يتسع لإعادة النظر في موضوع النزاع أو تعييب قضاء ذلك الحكم فيه.”Short quotation from the judgment as published by the court. The full judgment is on the court’s official service.
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