Court of Cassation, No. 92-16.240

Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, 6 April 1994, No. 92-16.240

BUZZECHILLI HOLDING

Vs

X

On the single ground, taken in its two branches:

An arbitral award has been rendered in Paris, on the 30 December 1988, in a dispute relating to a subcontract between two French companies. The judgment under appeal (Paris, 24 April 1992), ruling on the request for the annulment of the award formed by the two companies, said that the arbitration had an international character as the activities in question were part of a contractual package intended for carrying out industrial works abroad and decided, therefore, that the examination of grievances should be made by reference to the Article 1502 of the new Code of Civil Procedure.

This judgment is objected to for having thus ruled, while noting that the two parties both claimed in their writings the application of articles 1484 and 1485 of the new Code of Civil Procedure so that in deciding, ex officio, and despite the express agreement of the parties, that the arbitration was international, the court of appeal violated the Articles 4, 12 and 16 of the new Code of Procedure civil.

However, on the one hand, the type of arbitration, whether internal or international, determines, inter alia, the type of grounds for annulment against the award that the parties cannot modify, even if it is by express agreement in accordance with Article 12 of the new Code of Civil Procedure. On the other hand, the parties had been invited by the pre-trial judge to specify their means of annulment and discuss the nature of the arbitration on which, until then, they were opposed to each other so that the court of appeal, which was not bound by their subsequent agreement, did not have to collect new observations from the parties to requalify the arbitration.

Hence it follows that the means is not founded in any of its branches;

FOR THESE REASONS:

DISMISSES the appeal