id: 20604

Polish Supreme Court order

 dated 24 June 2021

Case No. IV CSK 229/21

Summary by arbitraz.laszczuk.pl:

An arbitral tribunal delivered an award in a dispute between E. Ł. And D., a limited liability company, based in W. E. Ł. filed a petition to set aside the arbitration award and the case was heard by a Court of Appeal. Finally, E. Ł. filed a cassation appeal to the Polish Supreme Court.

The Polish Supreme Court refused to accept the cassation appeal for examination due to the fact that E. Ł. failed to demonstrate that the cassation appeal was obviously justified.

It is worth noting that in this order the Polish Supreme Court made a reference to, among other things, the Polish Supreme Court judgment dated 11 May 2007, Case No. I CSK 82/07.

Excerpts from the text of the court’s ruling:

1. [B]y entering into an arbitration agreement, the parties consciously waived submission to the strictures of proceedings before a state court.

2. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to state that by concluding an arbitration agreement, the parties limit their constitutional and conventional right to court.

3. A party is deprived of the opportunity to defend its rights before an arbitral tribunal when the principle of equality of the parties has been violated, and one of the parties is not heard and does not have the opportunity to address the evidence and allegations presented by the opposing party. For these reasons, every instance in which an arbitral tribunal refuses to admit evidence sought by a party cannot be equated with that party being deprived of the right to a defense. This happens only when a party has no opportunity to present and argue for its position… .

4. [A] petition to set aside an arbitration award is not an appellate instrument, but a type of extraordinary judicial review by a state court over the activity of an arbitral tribunal. Thus in proceedings to set aside an arbitration award a state court cannot consider a dispute between the parties to the arbitration proceedings on the merits… .