§ Read 3a (according to Order).
§ Clause 16:
§ Limitation of time for commencing arbitration proceedings.
§ (4) For the purpose of the statutes of limitation as applying to arbitrations and of the said Section four hundred and ninety-six of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, as amended by this section, an arbitration shall he deemed to be commenced when one party to the arbitration agreement serves on the other party or parties a notice requiring him or them to appoint an arbitrator, or, where the arbitration agreement provides that the reference shall be to a person named or designated in the agreement, requiring him or them to submit the dispute to the person so named or designated.
§ LORD ASKWITHmoved, at the beginning of subsection (4), to insert "For the purpose of this section and." The noble Lord said: A second Amendment deals later on with the pith of the matter; this first Amendment is simply a drafting introduction. The object of the Amendment is that in cases where grave injustice might be done certain power should be given to the Court, when an award has been set aside, to avoid making the statutes of limitation apply during the time when a plaintiff may have been held up through no fault of his own. It is based upon a case heard in the Privy Council. Under the Indian laws a case had occurred in which the plaintiff had evidently been grossly held up by perpetual delays on the part of the defendant. In arbitration cases parties are not protected in the same way as in an action where the writ will continue to work, but the arbitrator might be the person who, through misconduct or delay or various other causes, was the person at fault, and in that case it would be unfair to the plaintiff that the abortive 296 proceedings should count in computing the time prescribed by the statutes of limitation. There should be some elasticity on the part of the Court in proper cases to allow a period in which these proceedings shall continue to count for the purpose of the statutes of limitation. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 3, at beginning insert (" For the purposes of this section and ").—(Lord Askwith.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§
LORD ASKWITHmoved to insert after subsection (6):
(7) Where the Court orders that an award be set aside or orders, after the commencement of an arbitration, that the arbitration agreement shall cease to have effect with respect to the dispute referred, the Court may further order that the period between the commencement of the arbitration and the date of the order of the Court shall be excluded in computing the time prescribed by the statutes of limitation for the commencement of proceedings (including arbitration) with respect to the dispute referred.
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 42, at end insert the said now subsection.—(Lord Askwith.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Bill passed, and sent to Commons.