Full title: 49 existing court cases on invalidness of arbitration agreement - If there are defects in the signing method of the agreement, the arbitration agreement is invalid (8)
Case 32. If the parties did not choose a specific dispute resolution method in the contract and lacked the intention to request arbitration, the arbitration clause would be invalid.
Case Name: Qin Mouhui and Hubei Lugong Mansion Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd. Applying for Confirmation of the Validity of the Arbitration Agreement
Case number: (2022) E01 Minte 163
Reason for adjudication: Article 16 of the Arbitration Law of the China stipulates that "an arbitration agreement includes the arbitration clauses concluded in the contract and the agreement reached in other written forms before or after the occurrence of the dispute to request arbitration. The arbitration agreement shall contain the following contents: (1) the expression of intention to request arbitration; (2) the arbitration matters; and (3) the selected arbitration commission." The "Decoration and Decoration Contract" signed between Hubei Lugong Dazhai Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd. Hankou Branch and Qin Mouhui did not choose a specific dispute resolution method for the dispute resolution clause, and lacked the intention to request arbitration. Therefore, the arbitration clause involved in the contract in question should be deemed invalid.
Case 33. The contract involved in the case was signed and formed on a triplicate contract with carbon copy function, and one party presented the original green triplicate contract held by it to the court. The arbitration clause is formed by handwritten modification, and there are many other modifications in the contract. In the event that both parties fail to produce the first two copies, namely the white and yellow originals of the contract, and there is a dispute over the contract content and signing process, the existing evidence cannot prove that the handwritten arbitration clause is the unanimous declaration of will of both parties, and it shall be deemed that both parties have not reached a valid arbitration agreement.
Case Name: Application for Confirmation of the Validity of the Arbitration Agreement by Yu Moulei and Xiao Mouhuang
Case No.: (2019) Yue 01 Min Te No. 948
Reason for adjudication: Article 16 of the Arbitration Law of the China stipulates that the arbitration agreement includes the arbitration clause concluded in the contract and the agreement reached in other written forms before or after the dispute. The arbitration agreement shall have the following contents: (1) the expression of intention to request arbitration; （2） Arbitration matters; （3） Selected arbitration committee. Based on the photocopy of the "Real Estate Lease Contract" submitted by Yu Moulei to this court and the green third copy contract submitted by Xiao Mouhuang in this case, it can be determined that the "Real Estate Lease Contract" was signed on a three copy contract with a carbon copy function. Xiao and Huang presented the original copy of the green third party contract they held to this court, and the copy of the "Real Estate Lease Contract" they submitted when applying for arbitration with the Guangzhou Arbitration Commission was not formed by the copy of the green third party contract. Their explanation of the source of the copy of the contract is clearly unreasonable. The 10 to 4 arbitration clauses of the contract involved in the case were formed through handwritten modifications, and there are also multiple other modifications in the contract. In the event that both parties have failed to present the original white and yellow copies of the contract and there is a dispute over the content and signing process of the contract, the existing evidence cannot prove that the handwritten arbitration clauses in Article 10 to Article 4 of the contract in question are a unanimous expression of the parties' intention. Therefore, it should be deemed that both parties have not reached a valid arbitration agreement.
Case 34. If the parties to the contract have altered the terms of the dispute resolution method, making it impossible to determine that they have reached a consensus on the arbitration clause, and if no supplementary agreement has been reached between the parties regarding the dispute resolution method afterwards, the arbitration agreement shall be deemed invalid.
Case Name: Zhu Mouhua and Wuhan Honggang Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. Applying for Confirmation of the Validity of the Arbitration Agreement
Case No.: (2020) E01 Minte No. 346
Reason for adjudication: Article 16 of the Arbitration Law of the China stipulates that "an arbitration agreement includes the arbitration clauses concluded in the contract and the agreement reached in other written forms before or after the occurrence of the dispute to request arbitration. The arbitration agreement shall contain the following contents: (1) the expression of intention to request arbitration; (2) the arbitration matters; and (3) the selected arbitration commission". In this case, the choice of dispute resolution method in the "Wuhan Commercial Housing Sales Contract" signed by Zhu Mouhua has been altered, making it impossible to determine whether the parties have reached a consensus on the arbitration clause. Afterwards, the parties to the contract did not reach a supplementary agreement on the dispute resolution method. Therefore, based on the above legal provisions and facts, it should be determined that the arbitration agreement stipulated in the "Wuhan Commercial Housing Sales Contract" in this case is invalid.