The Queen's Bench Division of the U.K.'s High Court of Justice has reversed a partial award by a tribunal of the London Court of International Arbitration ("LCIA"), which held that an arbitration respondent lost its right to challenge the validity of a request for arbitration by failing to object until after serving its Response and shortly before its Statement of Defence was due. The court agreed with the tribunal that the request for arbitration violated LCIA Rules by seeking to join two disputes arising under separate contracts in a single proceeding. The court disagreed, however, with the conclusion that the respondent untimely challenged the tribunal's jurisdiction based on the invalid request. Reading Section 31 of the 1996 Arbitration Act together with Article 23.3 of the LCIA Rules, the court found that objections to jurisdiction must be made no later than the time for the Statement of Defence.
A v. B, [2017] EWHC 3417 (Comm)
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