McGuid v Office De Commercialisation et D'Exportation [1999] NSWSC 931

New South Wales Supreme Court CITATION : McGuid v Office De Commercialisation et D'Exportation [1999] NSWSC 931 CURRENT JURISDICTION : Equity Division - Commercial List FILE NUMBER(S) : 50121/98 HEARING DATE(S) : 20.7.99 JUDGMENT DATE : 20 July 1999

PARTIES : Sarwat McGuid t/as A.B.S. Gulf (Plaintiff) Office De Commercialisation et D'Exportation & ors (Defendants) JUDGMENT OF : Einstein J

N.A. Cotman SC (Plaintiff) COUNSEL : C.J. Birch (First Defendant) R.E. Dubler (Second Defendant) Colinard & Co (Plaintiff) SOLICITORS : Riley Lawyers (First Defendant) Minter Ellison (Second Defendant) CATCHWORDS : Practice and procedure - Application for stay of proceedings - Identifying exclusive jurisdiction clause selecting Courts of Casablanca - Discretion to order stay - Principles applicable - Once clause held to be 'exclusive jurisdiction' clause, forum non conveniens test inapplicable - Parties to be held to their bargain unless strong cause for not doing so is shown by applicant - Contract written in French - Laws of Morocco and civil, commercial and criminal code published in Arabic and French - Proper law of the contract - Presumption that where contracting parties have expressly chosen a foreign court for the determination of disputes under the contract, the proper law of the contract is the law of that foreign court. AKAI Pty Limited v Peoples Insurance Co Limited (1996) 188 CLR 418 Amin Rasheed Shipping Corporation v Kuwait Insurance Co (1984) AC 50 Austrian Lloyd Steamship Co v Gresham Life Assurance Society Limited (1903) 1 King's Bench 249 Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes v Wilson (1954) 94 CLR 577 CASES CITED : FAI General Insurance v Ocean Marine Mutual (1997) 41 NSWLR 117 Gem Plastics Pty Limited v Satrex Maritime Pty Limited (Unreported, Supreme Court of New South Wales, 9 June 1995) IBM Australia v National Distribution Services Limited (1991) 22 NSWLR 466 John Kaldor Fabric Maker v Mitchell Cotts Freight (Aust) Pty Ltd (1989) 18 NSWLR 172 United Railways of Havana v Regla Warehouses Ltd (1960) Ch 52 DECISION : Order that proceedings against first defendant be stayed permanently.