UK Court Dismisses P&ID’s $11bn Suit Against Nigeria
A London court has upheld Nigeria’s challenge to an award worth US$11 billion, finding it was obtained by fraud.
Justice Robin Knowles of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales ruled in favour of Nigeria in the enforcement of a $11bn Process & Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) arbitration awards.
With the judgement delivered electronically by email to the parties on Monday, Nigeria succeeded in stopping the enforcement of the awards which was initially in favour of P&ID.
According to the judge, the awards against Nigeria by the company was obtained by fraud.
“In the circumstances and for the reasons I have sought to describe and explain, Nigeria succeeds on its challenge under section 68. I have not accepted all of Nigeria’s allegations. But the Awards were obtained by fraud and the Awards were and the way in which they were procured was contrary to public policy,” Justice Knowles ruled.
In January 2017, a private arbitration tribunal ordered Nigeria to pay $6.6bn to P&ID with interest starting from May 2013. Before the verdict, the interest fixed at seven percent ($1m daily) had accumulated to over $11bn.
Furthermore, the judge said, “What happened in this case is very serious indeed, and it is important that section 68 has been available to maintain the rule of law.
576. Section 68 (3) provides:
“(3) If there is shown to be serious irregularity affecting the tribunal, the
proceedings or the award, the court may—
“(a) remit the award to the tribunal, in whole or in part, for reconsideration,
“(b) set the award aside in whole or in part, or
“(c) declare the award to be of no effect, in whole or in part.
“The court shall not exercise its power to set aside or to declare an award to be of no effect, in whole or in part, unless it is satisfied that it would be inappropriate to remit the matters in question to the tribunal for reconsideration.
The allegations by Nigeria include allegations of bribery and corruption by P&ID
before, at and after the time the parties entered into the GSPA. It alleges that some of its own lawyers at the time of the arbitration, including two Leading Counsel, were
corrupted by P&ID. The allegations extend further still to early stages of the challenge
before this Court. In turn, for its part, P&ID expressly describes Nigeria’s case against
it as “false and dishonest”.
The judge further said he would refer a copy of his judgment to the Bar Standards Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority in respect of the conduct of two lawyers involved in the dispute Trevor Burke KC and Seamus Andrew.
