Interpretation of a foreign arbitration award

The successful party to an arbitration procedure before the Chamber of Agriculture Poland applied for the enforcement of the arbitration award at the OLG Brandenburg. The court rejected the debtor's defence of set-off. The BGH, on the other hand, made it clear that the obligated party’s right to be heard was violated because it was held that the arbitration award, which stated that the conditions for set-off were not met, is binding. The arbitration award must be interpreted without recourse to the applicable foreign law, since the sole question is whether the foreign arbitral tribunal has made actual findings on the existence of the set-off conditions which will preclude the set-off in Germany. [BGH  31.05.2016, I ZB 76/15]

• [“OLG Brandenburg” is the German Higher Regional Appellate Court Brandenburg; “BGH” is the German Supreme Court]