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 arbitratror’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.]

 

Parties:

Claimant: B*** BANK AG

Respondents: 1. Prof. Dr. K***, 2. Prof Dr. F***

Claimant: Manfred S***

Respondent: Chamber of Commerce of Austria in Vienna and two parties in support of the Respondent: 1. S*** GmbH, 2. S*** s.r.o., Czech Republic

 

Counsel:

For Claimant: Dr. Amhof & Dr. Damian Partnerschaft, Rechtsanwälte in Vienna