Landmark Cases

Zaiwalla & Co represented Sharp Corp Limited, India in a dispute with Viterra BV, Netherlands regarding the correct calculation of damages under a GAFTA contract for the sale of Canadian Yellow Peas and Crimson Lentils. After Sharp defaulted on payment terms, Viterra declared a default and prevailed in two GAFTA arbitrations, securing an award of approximately US$6 million.

Zaiwalla team challenged these awards, arguing that damages should reflect the value of custom cleared goods left in seller’s hand in India rather than replicating the terms of the original sale contract.

In a landmark judgment, the UK Supreme Court upheld Sharp’s appeal, setting a precedent on how to assess damages in international sales contracts and dismissed the damages assessment adopted by two GAFTA arbitration tribunals, the UK High Court and with some variation, the UK Court of Appeal.

The losing party to an arbitration appealed to the Court of Appeal arguing on technical grounds that the arbitrators did not have any power to make the decision. Zaiwalla & Co successfully upheld the arbitrators’ decision for their client, helping to define the role of an arbitrator in English law.

Considered to be one of the top 10 cases of 2013 by leading publication The Lawyer, Zaiwalla & Co. successfully challenged before the UK Supreme Court the listing of Bank Mellat by the UK Treasury under the UK’s Iran sanctions regime. Due to its major national security elements, the case involved the first ever ‘closed hearing’ in the Supreme Court’s history. It is now a landmark case on the approach to be adopted by the English Courts when part of the proceedings takes place behind closed doors.

Zaiwalla & Co also led Bank Mellat’s successful challenge against sanctions imposed by the European Union, causing the European Court of Justice to declare the sanctions unlawful.

Zaiwalla & Co acted for the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) in a dispute arising out of the political crisis following Venezuela’s disputed 2018 presidential election. The Bank of England (BoE) holds approximately US$2.1 billion of gold reserves on behalf of the state of Venezuela appointed by President Maduro but has questioned the authority of the current Board of BCV.  We are acting for the BCV in a claim against the BoE to gain access to those reserves to finance the purchase of humanitarian, food and medical supplies necessary to meet the Coronavirus pandemic.  This is disputed by a board appointed by Juan Guaidó, who claims the title of Interim President of Venezuela.

This issue has been considered by all levels of the UK courts, including the Supreme Court where Zaiwalla & Co acted.

Our team acted for a Bulgarian gas distributor in arbitration disputes with Russian energy giant Gazprom, in relation to Gazprom’s decision to stop supplying natural gas to Overgas in January 2016. Gazprom claimed that Overgas owed them approximately $105m under this arrangement, while Overgas claimed that Gazprom had acted in breach of EU and Bulgarian competition law and in breach of contract. We achieved a significant confidential settlement for our client.

Zaiwalla & Co obtains a confidential LCIA arbitration award in favour of its client for US$200 million in a dispute over family assets held through a Cypriot company following their client’s divorce.

The team defeated a claim for US$45 million made against several defendants brought in the English High Court by an Indian bank, based on an alleged fraud. We successfully argued that the claim was too weak and should not have been started in England because the defendants were more closely connected with India. We also successfully resisted the Bank’s appeal against this decision.

Known as ‘the arbitration case of the decade’, Zaiwalla & Co won its client’s case in the Court of Appeal arguing that an arbitration agreement that purported to restrict the appointment of arbitrators to members of a single religious denomination was void by reason of anti-discrimination legislation applicable to employment rights.

Following a series of ground-breaking victories whereby Zaiwalla & Co overturned international sanctions that had been imposed against Bank Mellat by the European Council and the UK Government, we acted for the Bank in its subsequent claim for over US$4 billion in damages and we secured a significant confidential settlement from the UK Treasury.