Ardhi University versus Kiundo Enterprises (T) Ltd; Misc Commercial Cause No 272 of 2015: High Court of Tanzania (Commercial Division) at Dar es Salaam (Unreported)
- Arbitration
- Arbitral award – what amounts to filing an arbitral award?
- Arbitral award – what is the procedure upon filing an arbitral award?
- Arbitral award – challenging of arbitral award – when does the right to challenge an arbitral award accrue?
- Arbitral award – when does an arbitral award become a decree of the court and what is the effect thereof?
- Arbitral award – whether right to challenge an arbitral award can still be invoked after an order making it a decree of the court has been passed.
Held:-
(i) As a matter of law it is not necessary to conduct proceedings before an order for filing is made. The receipt of the award by the court registry constitutes the filing of the award. Thereafter, the Court is required to notify the parties who may wish to challenge or to enforce the award in terms of the law.
(ii) The law is that a court of law once it has declared an arbitral award an enforceable decree of the court, it becomes fuctus officio, and therefore, barred by law to entertain any petition to challenge it. That is, the respondent will only be allowed to legally challenge the arbitral award before it is declared as a decree of the court.
(iii) An award alone cannot be enforced if it is not converted into a decree by an order, and an order alone without the award would not amount to a decree. That is, an arbitral award, having been filed must be tabled before a judge who will make necessary orders. It is not the Registrar who is empowered to remit it or order it as an enforceable decree; it is the judge.
(iv) A party aggrieved by an arbitral award has no avenue to challenge the same through a court of law until and unless the award is filed in court for purposes of registration as a decree of the court. It is the act of filing which brings the arbitral proceedings and its ultimate award within the empire of the court. Therefore, the right to challenge the arbitral award by the respondent accrues after filing.