Austria: The B-Bank and Manfred S cases - International Arbitration Court Decisions - 3rd Edition
Originally from International Arbitration Court Decisions - 3rd Edition
AUSTRIA
COURT DECISIONS FROM THE AUSTRIAN
SUPREME COURT CASE NO 9 Ob 126/04a AND CASE NO 6 Ob 207/06v RENDERED IN JUNE 1005 AND NOVEMBER 2006
“The B-Bank and Manfred S cases”
Subject Matter:
The nature of the relationship between the parties of an arbitration and the arbitrators.
Finding:
In both decisions, one regarding arbitrators liability and the other arbitrator’s remuneration, the Austrian Supreme Court applied a contractual approach to the relationship between the parties of an arbitration and the arbitrators.
[In the first case, the Supreme Court disregarded the argument of a liability based on office (“Amt”), defined arbitrator’s liability as purely contractual and thereby qualified arbitrator-contract as a service contract (“Werkvertrag”) between the arbitrator and the parties.
In the second case, the Supreme Court ruled that an arbitrator has a contractual duty to disclose possible conflicts of interest early on in the proceedings. The failure to do so deprives the arbitrator of remuneration.]
AUSTRIA
B*** Bank Ag v. Prof Dr. K and Prof Dr. F and Manfred S v. Chamber of Commerce of Austria in Vienna and two parties
in support of the Respondent: S*** GmbH, and S*** s.r.o., Czech Republic
Decisions from the Austrian Supreme Court rendered in June 2005 in Case No 9 Ob 126/04a and in November 2006 in Case No 6 Ob 207/06v
("The B-Bank and Manfred S cases")
SUBJECT-MATTER:
The nature of the relationship between parties of an arbitration and the arbitrators.
Observations by Fatima-Zahra Slaoui
Observations by Gerold Zeiler
Observations by Frank Bannon and Mathew Stulic