RAV Bahamas Ltd and another (Appellants) v Therapy Beach Club Incorporated (Respondent) (Bahamas)
Case ID: JCPC 2019/0113
Jurisdiction: Court of Appeal of the Bahamas
Case summary
Issue
This appeal concerns alleged procedural irregularities in relation to an arbitration award (the "Award"). The issues for consideration by the Board of the Privy Council (the "Board") relate to the Bahamas Arbitration Act 2009 (the "Act"), namely whether:
1. as a substantive matter,
a. in advancing a challenge under section 90 of the Act, an applicant must expressly and separately allege that serious irregularity has caused substantial injustice; and
b. in order to uphold a challenge under section 90 of the Act (and remit the Award for reconsideration), the Court must expressly and separately consider whether serious irregularity has caused substantial injustice.
Facts
In December 2011, RAV leased a parcel of land on the island of Bimini to Therapy for the operation of a restaurant and beach club. The term of the agreement (the "Lease") was for 3 years with the option to extend for a further 3 years. In March 2013, RAV commenced separate proceedings before the Supreme Court of the Bahamas ("Supreme Court") alleging, amongst other things, that the lease was void. Before the Supreme Court determined the issue, RAV evicted Therapy from Bimini.
RAV and Therapy concluded a separate "ad hoc" arbitration agreement to resolve disputes in relation to the eviction. The arbitrator, a retired Bahamian judge, held that Therapy had been wrongly evicted and awarded it a mixture of general and special damages. Winder J, in the Supreme Court, held that there had been serious irregularity on the part of the arbitrator in relation to the preparation of the Award (and, more specifically, with respect to the quantification of damages). This decision was subsequently overturned by the Court of Appeal of the Bahamas.
Parties
Appellant(s)
RAV Bahamas Ltd and another
Respondent(s)
Therapy Beach Club Incorporated
Appeal
Justices
Lord Hodge, Lord Hamblen, Lord Leggatt, Lord Burrows, Lord Stephens
Hearing start date
11 Feb 2021
Hearing finish date
11 Feb 2021
| Watch hearing | ||
|---|---|---|
| 11 Feb 2021 | Morning session | Afternoon session |
Judgment details
Judgment date
19 Apr 2021
Neutral citation
[2021] UKPC 8
- Judgment (PDF)
- Judgment on BAILII (HTML version)
Please Note: the amendments to the final approved judgment made on Friday 23 April and Monday 26 April were necessitated as there was duplication in the numbering of para 12 which resulted in the cross-referenced paragraphs throughout the judgment being out by one (amendments to paras 25, 69, 82, 83, 84, 85 and 68). Further amendments were necessitated as the conversion from draft to approved had an impact on formatting in para 29 and there were two minor typo errors (in paras 40(iv) and 60) not identified when the judgment was formatted.