M'Connell & Reid v. Smith

Subject_1 Contract Subject_2 Sale Subject_3 Condition of Contract Subject_4 Reference to Arbitration — Notice.

Held that the terms of the contract were not such as to give the purchaser reasonable notice that, in event of disputes arising thereunder, the ordinary jurisdiction of the Courts was ousted and procedure by way of arbitration substituted.

Opinion ( per Lord Ardwall) that, as the question at issue between the parties had not been decided, the action was incompetent in so far as it sought to enforce an incomplete decreet-arbitral.

M'Connell & Reid, flour importers, 19 Waterloo Street, Glasgow, brought an action against Robert Smith, 30 Canon mills, Edinburgh, in which they claimed (first) payment of (1) the sum of £124, 10s. 5d., being the amount of damages due to pursuers by defender for breach of contracts as ascertained in terms of an award by William Gilchrist and John Dunlop as arbiters; and (2) the sum of £3, 3s., being the expenses incurred by the pursuers in connection with the arbitration and award. The initial writ contained further craves which it is not necessary to specify.

The defender pleaded, inter alia —“(1) The averments in support of the initial writ being irrelevant, the action falls to be dismissed.”