Our legal team is very glad to report that our firm has represented two clients before two international arbitration references which have recently finalized; one on first tier, the other on appeal. This is not news as the members of our team have participated in a vast number of international arbitrations over the last two decades, in excess of one hundred of them, however, this time the quantum awarded in each reference has been particularly remarkable.
In these two cases our clients were the Claimants buyers who had entered two sales contracts with two of the largest world trading houses. Resulting form the commencement of the war in Ukraine the sellers contended that there was an event of force majeure preventing them from performing the agreed sales contracts. Our clients refused sellers’ positions and asked for performance. The sellers insisted and our clients were forced to bring the contracts to an end on the ground that sellers’ conducts amounted to a repudiation of the sales contracts. This in turn resulted in two very substantial claims for damages as the markets to replace the goods have risen very sharply.
The results of these two arbitrations, after more than one year of proceedings, have been two Awards in favour of the buyers for very substantial sums. We could not be happier for our clients who took a strong position on both these matters, stood against the sellers, and fought hard to obtain Justice.