IN THE MATTER of an Arbitration

Supreme Court
Action No. 492 of 1999
22nd March, 2000.
Shanks, J.

Mr. Wilfred Elrington, S.C. for the Claimants
Mr. Denys Barrow, S.C. for the Respondents.

Application for leave to appeal against interlocutory decision - Court previously granting leave with conditions - Uncertainty of whether court had power to grant leave with conditions - Authorities on this point unclear - Court granting leave to appeal against decision to grant leave in the first instance with conditions.

J U D G M E N T

This is an application for leave to appeal against a decision of mine where I gave leave to appeal to Mr. Barrow in this arbitration matter subject to certain conditions.

The imposition of these conditions has, it seems, caused a certain amount of trouble and it seems that Mr. Barrow wishes to appeal to the Court of Appeal to say I have no jurisdiction to impose the conditions and that the conditions imposed were too onerous.

It seems to me that the proper way to bring this before the Court of Appeal is to ask them to review my decision on the application for leave to appeal in the same way as if I had refused leave altogether, the Court of Appeal can be asked to review the matter. However, I understand that the Court of Appeal has indicated otherwise and that Mr. Barrow must therefore appeal against the decision.

I am, therefore, asked to grant leave for that appeal. The authorities indicating that there is jurisdiction to impose conditions have been shown to me but one of them talks about a certain condition like the one I imposed being unusual, and the other say that this is exceptional, if there is jurisdiction at all. It seems to me that the whole matter should indeed be reviewed by the Court of Appeal to see what kind of conditions can be imposed on a leave application and that if I don't grant leave to appeal this time, the matter will get lost in a quite unnecessary procedural wrangle.

In order to cut through such a wrangle I therefore grant Mr. Barrow leave to appeal against the imposition of conditions on my last grant of leave to appeal. In doing so, I wish to emphasize that I am expressing no view whatsoever as to the merits of his appeal. I hope these reasons are sufficient for the Court of Appeal to now review this matter provided, of course, that they have time to do so.

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