Havana Club Holding SA v Pac-Rim Management Services Ltd

Havana Club Holding SA (Havana Club) and Pac-Rim Management Services Ltd (Pac-Rim) were the parties involved in proceedings before the Supreme Court of Victoria. The dispute concerned the enforceability of a foreign arbitral award made in favour of Havana Club against Pac-Rim. Havana Club sought to enforce this award in Australia, while Pac-Rim resisted enforcement.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether Pac-Rim had established any of the grounds for resisting enforcement of the foreign arbitral award under section 8(5) of the International Arbitration Act 1974 (Cth). Specifically, the Court had to consider whether Pac-Rim could demonstrate that it was not given proper notice of the appointment of the arbitrator or of the arbitral proceedings, or that it was otherwise unable to present its case.

Justice Croft, applying the principles established in cases such as Tanning v Tanning and Tanning v Tanning, found that Pac-Rim had failed to discharge its onus of proof. The Court was not satisfied that Pac-Rim had been denied natural justice or that it had been unable to present its case. The evidence presented by Pac-Rim was insufficient to establish that it had not received proper notice of the arbitration proceedings or that its ability to participate had been impaired.

Consequently, the Court ordered that the foreign arbitral award be enforced in Australia.