The European Court of Human Rights has issued a judgment holding that there has been a violation of the right to a fair trial by North Macedonia against the Polish company NDI Sopot S.A.
The case concerns a violation of the right to a fair trial in two proceedings for the recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award made in favour of the Polish company against a Macedonian company, which were brought before the Macedonian courts at the request of the Polish company. However, in both cases, the Basic Civil Court Skopje issued Judgments dismissing the Request for the recognition and enforcement of the foreign arbitral award.
In the first procedure, the Basic Civil Court Skopje dismissed the Proposal as a result of the fact that there were doubts about the independence and impartiality of one of the arbitrators due to his connection with one of the persons who participated in the conclusion of the Agreement from which the arbitration dispute arose, which is contrary to the public policy of the country in which the recognition is sought. In addition, the Macedonian court determined that the party submitting the Request (the Polish company) did not submit evidence that the arbitral award is final and enforceable, which is mandatory according to the Law on Private International Law.
Such a first-instance decision was appealed by the party submitting the Request, however, the Appellate Court Skopje determined that the first-instance court acted correctly and confirmed its decision.
After the decision became final, the Polish company, upon learning about a connection between the husband of one of the judges and the counter party (the defendant in the arbitration procedure), filed a Request for reopening of the procedure, however, this proposal was also rejected by the Macedonian courts.
Additionally, NDI Sopot S.A. initiated another arbitration procedure against the same Macedonian company, unrelated to the first one and after receiving an arbitration award, it again submitted a Request for recognition and enforcement of the new arbitration award. That procedure also it ended with the rejection of the submitted Proposal.
For these reasons, the Polish company initiated proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights, referring to a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, i.e. a violation of the right to a fair trial.
The ECHR, acting upon the application, and considering the allegations made by the applicant and the State, issued a Judgment determining that the application was admissible and that the relationship of the husband of one of the judges who acted in the second-instance proceedings with the opposing legal entity constituted a violation of Article 6, paragraph 1 of the Convention, and that the domestic courts had failed to provide an adequate response to the applicant’s Application, they had not taken into account and had not assessed the allegations made by the applicant, which had contributed to the courts’ decisions not containing adequate reasoning and not being supported by adequate evidence.
The ECHR also ordered North Macedonia to pay the Polish company the amount of 3,600 euros as damage suffered and 15,000 euros as costs of the proceedings within three months of the decision becoming final.