Arbitration - Glencore Agriculture V Conqueror Holdings

Case Alert - [2017] EWHC 2893 (Comm)

Judge holds that arbitration notice was not effectively served on a party's employee

The claimant company sought to set aside an arbitration award on the basis that it had taken no part in the proceedings because it had been unaware of them. The notice of arbitration had been sent to the email address of a relatively low level employee who had left the claimant a month before the purported service of the notice.

Section 76 of the Arbitration Act 1996 provides that the parties are free to agree the manner of service of the notice but, failing that, the notice may be served "by any effective means" (a far wider concept than service of a claim form under the CPR). In Bernuth Lines v High Seas [2006], the...