May 2014
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
COURT OF APPEAL
CIVIL APPEAL – COMMERCIAL APPEAL – ARBITRATION PROCEEDINGS – SHARE AND SALE PURCHASE AGREEMENT – APPLICATION TO SET ASIDE STATUTORY DEMAND – WHETHER THERE IS A SUBSTANTIAL DISPUTE AS TO WHETHER DEBT IS OWING OR DUE
This was an appeal by Vendort Traders Inc (the “Appellant”) against an order of the Learned Commercial Court Judge dismissing its application for an order to set aside a statutory demand served on it by Evrostroy Grupp (the “Respondent”). The statutory demand was based on an unsatisfied arbitral award. The Appellant fully participated in the arbitral proceedings which gave rise to the Award. The grounds of the appeal were that (i) no debt was owing because the Award had not been enforced in the BVI and an unenforceable award could not form the basis of the statutory demand; (ii) there was a substantial dispute as to whether the Award was enforceable in the BVI because the Award was either procured by fraud or its enforcement was part of a fraudulent scheme to divest it of its assets; and (iii) the Judge erred in holding that it had accepted that the Award created an estoppel between it and the Respondent.