Headnote

Arbitration – Jurisdiction – Provisional measures – Summary action

Summary of facts

The Petitioner initiated a precautionary action against the Respondent to get him evicted from his property following the termination of a lease agreement between the parties. The Court of First Instance dismissed the Petitioner’s request. The Petitioner then appealed before the Court of Appeal, which overturned the decision of the Court of First Instance.

The Respondent appealed before the Court of Cassation, claiming that the courts had no jurisdiction to hear the case since there was an arbitration clause in the parties’ agreement, that this agreement should be extended to summary and provisional matters and, alternatively, that the Rent Dispute Resolution Committee was the relevant jurisdiction to hear the dispute.

Held

The decision of the Court of Appeal was overturned.

If the parties failed to agree in the arbitration agreement or arbitration clause that the arbitrator shall have jurisdiction to decide on provisional, precautionary and summary matters, jurisdiction will be conferred on the competent judicial body having jurisdiction over such matters.

Judgment

It was decided that, if the parties failed to agree in the arbitration agreement or arbitration clause that the arbitrator(s) shall have jurisdiction to decide on provisional, precautionary and summary matters, jurisdiction will be conferred on the competent judicial body having jurisdiction over such matters. However, this does not entail a waiver of the arbitration clause, which remains confined to the substantive aspects of the dispute.

Articles 2, 24 and 25 of Law No. 20 of 2006 concerning the lease of premises and regulation of the landlord-tenant relationship in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi indicate that, effective from the date of entry into force of the Law, the Rent Dispute Resolution Committee shall have exclusive jurisdiction over rent disputes, in both substantive and summary respects. According to Article 31 of Law No. 20, all rent disputes pending in court that have not been finally decided shall be referred to the Rent Dispute Resolution Committee. The present dispute is a summary action involving a request on the part of the Petitioner company to evict the Respondent company due to the termination of the lease and the issue whether the Respondent company can extend the lease. As such, the matter is a rent dispute over which the Rent Dispute Resolution Committee has jurisdiction to determine whether or not the lease has been terminated or will be extended. The committee’s jurisdiction would be exercised to dispose of the matter summarily, including the request for provisional relief under Article 25 of the Law. The generally worded arbitration clause appearing in the lease does not preclude the Petitioner from filing a summary action before the Committee. This would not be considered a waiver of the arbitration clause, which was limited to the substantive aspects of the dispute.

The courts are held to have no jurisdiction in matters that pertain to the jurisdiction of the Rent Dispute Resolution Committee according to Article 25 of Law No. 20 of 2006.

Accordingly, the decision of the Court of Appeal is overturned.