One of the common frustrations faced by a claimant in arbitration proceedings is having to deal with a recalcitrant respondent who refuses to pay the deposit required by the arbitral institution or tribunal. More often than not, in the interests of time, the claimant would have to fork out the money to pay the respondent’s portion of the deposit in order not to delay the proceedings.
Can the claimant refuse to pay the respondent’s portion and proceed to litigate in court instead of continuing with the arbitration? If it does so, can the respondent obtain a stay of the court proceedings on the basis that the dispute should be arbitrated despite previously refusing to pay the arbitration deposit? These issues were recently dealt with in a seminal judgment given by the Court of Appeal in JSB v ACSB [2023] 1 LNS 2176. Unless otherwise stated, the paras referred to below shall mean paras in this Court of Appeal judgment.