Originally from International Arbitration Court Decisions - 3rd Edition

JUDGMENT BY THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION), ENGLAND RENDERED IN 2004 IN CASE [2004] EWCA Civ. 1660

Subject Matter:
Issue estoppel (estoppel by res judicata) created by an arbitral award in another arbitration between different parties in a related dispute.

Finding:
An arbitral award between A and B does not give rise to issue estoppel (estoppel by res judicata) in a separate arbitration on a related dispute between B and C.

Parties:
Claimants: 1. Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada (Canada)
2. American Phoenix Life and Reassurance Co. (USA)
3. Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Co. (USA)
Respondent: The Lincoln National Life Insurance Co (USA)

Place of Court Proceedings:
London, England

Applicable Law:
English Arbitration Act 1996 (section 69)

Summary
Given the complexity of the facts and the length of this judgment, a summary of the relevant factual background is set out below and only extracts of the relevant legal sections of the judgment of the Court of Appeal have been reproduced. The Appellants (“Sun”) had commenced arbitration proceedings against Cigna Reinsurance Company of Europe SANV (“Cigna”) (“the Cigna arbitration”) claiming that Cigna had reinsured Sun under certain occupational accident (“occ/acc”) reinsurances allegedly concluded in 1998 in respect of incoming business, underwritten on Sun’s behalf by an underwriting agent. Sun had alleged that the occ/acc business so reinsured included seven whole account reinsurances accepted by the underwriting agent to protect a personal accident pool underwritten and managed by Unicover. The Cigna tribunal had declared that the whole Cigna reinsurance had been validly avoided for misrepresentation and non-disclosure by the placing brokers.