Mexican Construction Co. v. Belgian Co.

A Saudi Arabian government entity and a Belgian consortium to which a Belgian company (defendant) belonged signed a construction contract. The Belgian company subcontracted part of the construction project to a Mexican construction company (plaintiff). Difficulties arose, and the Mexican construction company was unable to meet certain requirements, so the Belgian company began making deductions from payments. The Mexican construction company gave the Belgian company a notice of termination and, on the next day, the Belgian company gave the Mexican construction company notice stating its own intent to terminate the contract in return. The Mexican construction company initiated arbitration against the Belgian company in Switzerland at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The tribunal rendered a partial award in favor of the Mexican construction company. The award considered the issue of whether the Belgian company or the Mexican company effectively terminated the contract and included a finding that the Mexican construction company’s termination was valid. This finding was essential to many of the other issues involved in the dispute. After the partial award was issued, the Belgian company made no attempt to challenge it according to the provisions and procedures provided for under Swiss law. As the ICC continued to conduct the arbitration so that a final award could be issued, the Belgian company continued to argue that the Mexican construction company’s termination of the contract was not valid.