An arbitration award does not create a new debt for purposes of prescription. Parties who wait more than one year to have an arbitration award made an order of court with a 30 year prescription period may find that, when they attempt to enforce the award, the underlying debt has prescribed. Parties should deal expressly
Daniel McConnell
Enforcing arbitration awards against foreign parties with assets in South Africa
By Daniel McConnell on
South African Courts can enforce an arbitration award arising out of an arbitration which did not take place in South Africa, is not governed by South African law, does not involve any South African parties and relates to a transaction that is not linked to South Africa. All that is required is that the party…
Cover for collapsed crane excluded by a contractor’s equipment exclusion (US)
By Daniel McConnell on
A New York Court of Appeals rejected a claim for collapse of a tower crane during Hurricane Sandy because the policy had an exclusion for ‘contracted tools, machinery, plant and equipment’. It rejected the insured’s submission that the crane was covered as a ‘temporary structure’.
Readers will remember the traumatic images of the boom of…
Constitutional Court restores in duplum rule
By Daniel McConnell on
The Constitutional Court has restored the law on the running of interest on outstanding debts – reversing the SCA’s 1997 decision that the institution of legal proceedings suspends the operation of the in duplum rule. The revised legal position applies to all debtors, except those whose court cases have been finalised with no possibility of…