Object

Art. 9 Cst and others (definitive dismissal of the objection to pay a debt; recognition of a foreign arbitral award) public law appeal against a decision of the 1st Section of the Court of Justice of the Canton of Geneva of 16 June 2005.

Facts:

A. Companies X.________ and Y.________ are both active in oil trade, especially in the Baltic countries and Belarus. On 2 May 2003, they entered into agreement no. 01-W/T-28-05-2003, according to which Y.________ committed to delivering to the border between Belarus and Latvia 10,000 metric tonnes of M-100 fuel oil at US$ 110/metric tonne. X.________ paid 90% of the price agreed within the allotted time, but did not pay the balanceof US$ 49,537.50.

B. The agreement of 28 May 2003 provided that all disputes be submitted to the Riga Commercial Arbitration Tribunal (Art. 8.2) and that this tribunal’s decision would be final and binding upon the parties (Art. 8.3).

B.a Y.________ thus seized the Riga Commercial Arbitration Tribunal and on 2 December 2003 and obtained a decision ordering X.________ to pay it the amount of LVL 28,434.53 (Latvian Lats)—equal to US$ 49,537.50—as well as the costs of proceedings and legal assistance, i.e. LVL 2,169.21. This decision, which may not be appealed, was declared immediately enforceable and stated that if it was not voluntarily performed, the claimant had the right to petition the Zimeliai district court of the city of Riga for an enforceable payment request for enforcement of said decision. On 7 January 2004, the said district court declared enforceable the aforementioned arbitral award of 2 December 2004; such decision may not be appealed.