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After scoring a victory in April 2004 in Xiamen International Trade Group Corp., Ltd. v. East and West, Inc., DeHeng Chen Chan, LLC (“DCC”) has recently filed a petition in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware to enforce a major arbitration award handed out by China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (“CIETAC”). In the present case of arbitration award enforcement, DCC represents China Three Gorges Project Corporation (“China Three Gorges”), which has been constructing and operating, among other things, a power plant at Three Gorges, the world’s largest hydropower plant. By the end of 2003 more than 100 billion RMB (or $12 billion USD) had already been invested in the Three Gorges Project. China Three Gorges has retained DeHeng Law Offices as its general counsel for more than ten years.
The original dispute between China Three Gorges and the defendant revolves around a serious accident caused by a piece of heavy machinery China Three Gorges purchased from the defendant. After the accident, the two parties entered into a negotiation memorandum, which includes an arbitration clause. China Three Gorges eventually submitted the case to CIETAC under this arbitral clause and claimed that the defendant should be liable for the substantial tort damages the accident had caused. Our client won a CIETAC award close to 4 million USD.
After exhausting its recovery in China, our client is now actively seeking to recover the balance of its arbitration award in the US. On behalf of China Three Gorges DCC has filed pleadings with the Delaware District Court. Under the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (usually referred to as “New York Convention” in the arbitration practice), which has been promulgated as US domestic law through 9 U.S.C. §201, et. seq. and which governs the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in the US, a court in the US is normally not supposed to look into the merits of an arbitration case, but should limit its scrutiny, if any, to the procedural aspects of the arbitration. Based on this law and the facts of the case, we expect the Delaware court to render a favorable decision in due course. Mr. Xiaomin Chen, senior partner of DCC, and Mr. Matthew Gruskin, of counsel to DCC, have led the representation in the current case.
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