Not So Fast ' English Commercial Court Finds That LCIA Award Does Not Bind Third Parties

• Published date: 30 June 2022
• Law Firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
• Author: The International Arbitration Blog and Alison Bond

In PJSC National Bank Trust and another v Boris Mints and others[2022] EWHC 871 (Comm), Foxton J of the English Commercial Court was tasked with deciding whether to allow the Claimant banks to amend their pleadings to include an allegation that findings from an award of the London Court of International Arbitration (the "LCIA"), involving parties allegedly under the control of the Claimants in the arbitration, bound the First, Second and Third Defendants in the Court proceedings (collectively the "Defendants"). Foxton J found that the arbitral award did not bind third parties, though he did not shut the door entirely for a different conclusion to be reached in the future on a different set of facts.

Background to the litigation

The Claimant banks brought an Application in the Commercial Court to amend their Particulars of Claim to allege that the Defendants in the Court proceedings were privies of the claimants to the LCIA arbitration with the result that the Defendants in the Court proceedings were estopped from denying certain allegations or it would be an abuse of process for them to do so.

Foxton J refused the Claimants' Application to amend their Particulars of Claim. He also rejected the Claimants' argument that: (1) the Defendants should be estopped from mounting...