CYPRUS: District Court of Limassol dismisses originating application for cross examination of an affiant with regards to enforcement and registration of an arbitral award

Τhe District Court of Limassol dismissed the originating application filed by the Applicants, the Cooperative Bank of Limassol whereby it sought a court order to cross examine the affiant who had sworn the affidavit supporting the registration and enforcement of a domestic arbitral award in Cyprus.

The grounds upon which the Applicant wanted to cross examine the affiant included amongst others (i) the circumstances surrounding the handling of the arbitration proceedings which had been held; (ii) the circumstances as to the notification of the arbitration proceedings to the Applicant; (iii) the circumstances surrounding the referring of the claim to the arbitration proceedings etc. A relevant opposition was had also been filed by the Respondent.

In brief the District Court of Limassol came to the following decision:

(i) The matter of cross examination is governed by Order 39 Rule 1 of the Civil Procedure Rules, it lies within the discretion of the Court and is issued very rarely as appears from the case law and only in extraordinary circumstances. The matters for which the Applicant requested the cross examination of the affiant fall outside the scope of the present proceedings as is clear from the case law the matters which are to be examined during any procedure for the registration of an arbitral award.

The Court relied on the case of Andreas Hadjigeorgiou Nicolaou v Cooperative Bank of Aglanjia (2012) 1ΑΑ 707) whereby it was stated that during the proceedings for registration and enforcement of an arbitral award, the Court shall not examine neither the correctness of the arbitral award nor the substance of the dispute. Furthermore every application for registration and enforcement of an arbitral award should be served to the person against whom it is to be enforced in order for same to have the opportunity to promote any issue relevant with the registration of the arbitral award and nothing more than that. This is also the reason why such applications are filed by summons.

For the reasons above, the Court dismissed the said application.

For further information on this topic please contact

Mrs. Nada Starovlah (nstarovlah@pittaslegal.com) at SOTERIS PITTAS & CO LLC,

by telephone (+357 25 028460) or by fax (+357 25 028461)

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advise should be sought about your specific circumstances.