GA-HYUN CHUNG v SILVER DRY BULK CO LTD

摘要

By a memorandum of agreement dated 1 February 2011 Homer Hulbert Maritime Co Ltd (HH) agreed to sell a newbuilding vessel to Silver Dry Bulk Co Ltd (SDBC). The agreement contained a London arbitration clause. HH was a corporation incorporated in and under the laws of the Marshall Islands. On 28 February 2011 it filed articles of dissolution in the Marshall Islands. SDBC alleged that the purchase price paid by SDBC to HH for the vessel included the payment by HH of a US$5 million secret commission to Hannibal Gaddafi, a son of Colonel Gaddafi and the then controller of General National Maritime Transportation Co (GNMTC), the Libyan state maritime company and the parent company of SDBC. On or shortly after 28 October 2014 SDBC served a notice of arbitration on HH. The notice of arbitration nominated an arbitrator. HH did not respond. Accordingly, on the expiry of 14 days the nominated arbitrator automatically became the sole arbitrator.