Summary

Arbitration -- Award -- Recourse against award -- Setting aside -- Breach of natural justice -- Arbitral procedure -- Whether arbitral procedure was in accordance with the parties' agreement -- Setting aside -- Grounds raised in the supporting affidavit but not advanced in submission

The claimants apply to set aside a partial final award ("the Award") dated 14 July 2025 issued in an arbitration seated in Singapore ("the Arbitration"). In order to maintain the confidentiality associated with the Arbitration, the parties have consented to an order for the names of the parties and their associated entities to be anonymised pursuant to s 23(4) of the International Arbitration Act 1994 (2020 Rev Ed) ("the Act") and O 48 r 2(1) of the Rules of Court 2021 ("the Rules"). I shall therefore refer to the first claimant as "DSV", to the second claimant as "DSW", to both of them collectively as "the claimants" and to the respondent as "DSU". In order further to maintain confidentiality, I shall refer to the country in which the underlying events occurred as Ruritania. As the precise sums in dispute are immaterial, I shall convert all sums of money in issue into Singapore dollars and round them off for convenience.

The claimants advance three grounds for setting aside the Award. The first ground is that the Tribunal breached the rules of natural justice, within the meaning of s 24(b) of the Act, read with Art 34(2)(a)(ii) of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration ("the Model Law"), in its treatment of an issue that I shall call the Stay Issue. The second ground is that the Tribunal departed from the procedure that the parties had agreed, within the meaning of Art 34(2)(a)(iv) of the Model Law. The third ground is that the Tribunal exceeded its powers in reserving its jurisdiction over DSU's application for certain post-Award freezing relief.

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