Chinese Company A and Singapore Company C have been engaging in the international sale of bauxite for many years. As some of the bauxite mines delivered by Singapore Company C were found to have serious quality defects, Chinese Company A suffered huge losses. Later, head of Singapore Company C informed Chinese Company A that, as necessary for internal management, Singapore Company C would be replaced by BVI Company B. Then BVI Company B delivered goods to Chinese Company A as agreed. After repeated collections by BVI Company B, Chinese Company A never paid to BVI Company B and demanded that BVI Company B be paid from the defaulted compensation for defective goods due from Singapore Company C to Chinese Company A. After the parties negotiated to no avail, BVI Company B filed to the ICC for arbitration. Chinese Company A authorized a Singapore lawyer to counterclaim and then removed such lawyer. Finally, the ICC made an arbitral award by default, ruling that Chinese Company A shall pay BVI Company B the full amount for goods and its interests, all arbitration fees incurred in this case, attorney fees incurred to BVI Company B and other expenses in connection with this case. In November 2015, BVI Company B submitted the Petition for Arbitration Award Recognition and Enforcement to an intermediate people's court in China, requesting that the arbitral award made by the ICC be recognized and enforced. In late 2017, thanks to professional services offered by ZHH's lawyers, the parties reached a settlement agreement, and BVI Company B withdrew its petition from such intermediate people's court in China.
In this case, ZHH's team provided full legal services to Chinese Company A, including but not limited to finding out defects from ICC arbitral award procedures pursuant to the New York Convention and other domestic laws and regulations, such as authorizing the Singapore Lawyer to issue legal opinions as to whether there were defects in ICC arbitration procedures, proposing jurisdiction objection, extending the time limit for burden of proof, and setting procedural obstacles, forced BVI Company B to settle with Chinese Company A, and assisted Chinese Company A in out-of-court negotiations with BVI Company B. Finally, with professional services provided by ZHH's lawyers, the parties reached an accommodation. In a situation that was extremely unfavorable to Chinese Company A, ZHH's lawyers succeeded in reducing the amount of compensation from Chinese Company A through professional services and efforts, which was highly recognized by the client.
This project was led by Partner YANG Qing’s team.