Landmark Cases

In the context of a major commodity dispute, Zaiwalla & Co overturned a GAFTA arbitration decision in the High Court. The Court accepted Zaiwalla & Co’s argument that a contract was not binding on an Indian Government public entity where it was signed by an employee who did not have actual or apparent authority to bind the company, regardless of the other parties’ belief that he did.

A well-publicised application where a claimant sought to commit a company’s directors to prison, on the basis that they had failed to comply with certain provisions of a worldwide freezing order. The Court held that if a company fails to comply with the terms of a freezing order, its directors could be fined or imprisoned, but only if they had ‘wilfully’ failed to comply.

We acted for one of Moscow’s leading lawyers in defence to a $300 million claim by Russian oligarch Sergei Polonskiy following the sale of a stake in his company to another shareholder, which he claimed was going to be sold to oligarch Roman Abramovich. We successfully had the claim dismissed and a judgment was granted on our client’s counterclaim.