UUÂãÁÄÖ±²¥

Article summary

Arbitration analysis: One shareholder (A. Ltd or ¡®A¡¯) sued another (B. JSC or ¡®B¡¯) for breach of a shareholders¡¯ agreement before the Swiss Arbitration Centre. Soon thereafter, the shareholders¡¯ joint-venture company (C. LLC or ¡®C¡¯) sued A in a Latvian court, asserting rights under the shareholders¡¯ agreement, even though it was not a signatory thereto. Shareholder A subsequently requested the tribunal to join C as a party to the arbitration and order it to stop pursuing the Latvian state court proceeding. The arbitral tribunal declined jurisdiction over C and dismissed A¡¯s requests. The Swiss Federal Court confirmed the award. The court considered itself bound by the arbitrators¡¯ factual finding that the two shareholders did not intend non-signatory C to be a third-party beneficiary. The court therefore did not need to address the still unsettled question whether such a beneficiary could be compelled to arbitrate. The court also found that C (even though it had asserted...