What happens when an annulment claim of an arbitral award is filed with the wrong court?
Assuming, in any case, that an annulment claim of an arbitral award is filed within the civil jurisdiction, we may encounter two types of filing errors that could significantly impact the statutory two-month limitation period for filing an annulment claim of an arbitral award (Article 41.4 of the Spanish Arbitration Act). These errors are: filing with a territorially incompetent court (e.g., the High Court of Justice of another Autonomous Community) or with an objectively incompetent court (e.g., a Court of First Instance).
The distinction between these two types of errors is not trivial, as they receive markedly different procedural treatment, as noted by the jurisprudence of the Spanish Supreme Court (see, among others, STS 486/2016, 14 July):
- **Filing with a territorially incompetent court would not invalidate the proceedings (Article 58 of the Civil Procedure Act), but would rather result in the referral of the case to the territorially competent court (Articles 60.3 and 65.5 of the Civil Procedure Act), thus preserving the initial filing date and mitigating the risk of action expiry.
- **Filing with an objectively incompetent court would indeed invalidate the proceedings (Articles 48 of the Civil Procedure Act and 238.1 of the Judicial Power Organisation Act), necessitating the refiling of the annulment claim, with the risk of action expiry as a consequence.
**The Case of STSJ Balearic Islands 2/2024, 26 July
In this instance, the clarification of the award was notified on 15 February 2023, and the annulment claim was filed on 13 April 2023—two days before the expiration date. However, the annulment claim was submitted to a Court of First Instance, an objectively incompetent court, as objective competence for these matters lies with the High Courts of Justice (Article 8.5 of the Arbitration Act).
Lack of Objective Competence and Expiry of the Action
On 28 February 2024, the Court of First Instance issued an order archiving the proceedings due to lack of objective competence. Subsequently, on 7 March 2024, the court issued a clarifying order rejecting the transfer of the case to the competent court, as would occur in cases of territorial incompetence (Articles 60.3 and 65.5 of the Civil Procedure Act).
When the annulment claim was refiled on 11 March 2024 with the objectively competent court—the High Court of Justice—a judgment was rendered deeming the action for annulment expired due to the lapse of the legally prescribed two-month period (Article 41.4 of the Arbitration Act). According to the Court’s reasoning, “the annulment action was filed after the expiry deadline, requiring the dismissal of the claim without consideration of the remaining issues.” Additionally, the court ordered the claimant to pay costs (Article 394 of the Civil Procedure Act).
It is worth noting, however, that this approach may not be universally adopted, as seen in STSJ Madrid 48/2017, 19 July, which considers that declaring expiry in such cases would reflect “an overly strict, excessively formalistic, or disproportionate interpretative criterion concerning the interests protected and those compromised.”
Conclusions
The case of STSJ Balearic Islands 2/2024, 26 July, highlights the risks associated with filing an annulment claim of an arbitral award with an objectively incompetent court. If the expiry period of two months elapses between the initial filing and the court’s determination of objective incompetence, the action is at risk of expiry—an outcome likely given the estimated duration of civil cases and the growing backlog within civil jurisdiction (see “Justice by the Numbers,” 2023 edition).
Although the stance on expiry of an annulment claim in cases of objective incompetence (see STSJ Balearic Islands 2/2024, 26 July) may not be shared by other High Courts of Justice (see STSJ Madrid 48/2017, 19 July), it is highly advisable to verify that an annulment claim of an arbitral award is filed with both the objectively and territorially competent court.
