Enforcement of Arbitral Award

H&J was approached by a company based in Hong Kong who had a substantial arbitral award against an individual arising from proceedings in Hong Kong. The individual was a British national but had been residing in Hong Kong.  He fled Hong Kong shortly after the arbitral award was made leaving the company unable to enforce the award.

H&J took assignment of the debt arising under the award and made an application for recognition of the award in the UK.  After a contested hearing, the application was granted.  In parallel, H&J took steps to investigate and identify assets owned by the debtor in the UK and once the award had been recognised, H&J enforced the award against those assets - seeking a charging order against a property owned by the individual and a third party debt order against a number of banks with whom the individual was known to hold accounts.  

Significant sums were realised resulting in a substantial payment back to the assignor of the debt.  However, the sums realised were insufficient to discharge the debt in full; therefore H&J applied for the individual’s bankruptcy.