Return to site

49 court cases on arbitration agreement invalidness -- no civil capacity (3)

June 21, 2023

Full Title: 49 existing court cases on invalidness of arbitration agreement - If one party to the contract belongs to a person with no or limited civil capacity, the arbitration clause shall be deemed invalid due to the invalidity of the contract (3)

Case 15. If either party to the contract suffers from serious mental illness at the time of signing the contract, it may be deemed that they have no civil capacity due to cognitive impairment, and the arbitration clause they have signed shall be deemed invalid.

Case name: Li Mouping and Beijing Huayi sisters Cultural Development Co., Ltd. applied for confirming the validity of the arbitration agreement

Case number: (2021) Jing 04 Min Te 865

Reason for judgment: Li Mouping's Legal guardian claimed that Li Mouping was a person without capacity for civil conduct when signing the contract involved in the case. He submitted Li Mouping's "disabled person certificate" and the relevant judgment confirming Li Mouping as a person without capacity for civil conduct as evidence. Although Li Mouping was not judicially recognized as a person without capacity for civil conduct when signing the contract, from the signing date of the Customer Subscription Contract, From the date of Li Mouping's civil capacity appraisal and the date when Li Jinping was judged as "without civil capacity", the time span involved in the three nodes is not significant and there is continuity in the connection; From the content of the judicial appraisal, the reason why Li Mouping was found to have no civil capacity is that he is in a period of schizophrenia decline and has severe cognitive impairment. The appraisal results also indicate that Li Mouping indeed suffers from serious mental illness. Based on the above two reasons, it can be concluded that Li Mouping's lack of civil capacity due to cognitive impairment when signing the contract involved in the case is highly likely. Therefore, although the "Customer Subscription Contract" was signed and confirmed by Li Mouping, combined with the evidence in the case, it is not sufficient to determine that Li Mouping had civil capacity when signing the "Customer Subscription Contract". Therefore, it should be confirmed that the arbitration clause stipulated in Article 7 of the "Customer Subscription Contract" signed by Li Mouping and Cultural Company is invalid.

Other reference cases: Chen and Beijing Decheng Investment Guarantee Co., Ltd. applied for confirmation of the effectiveness of the arbitration agreement [(2020) Jing 04 Min Te No. 77]

Case 16. If one of the parties involved in the case is a person with limited civil capacity at the time of signing the arbitration agreement, the arbitration agreement shall be invalid.

Case name: Mr. Li applied to Donghai County Yuantuo Culture Media Co., Ltd. to confirm the validity of the arbitration agreement

Case No.: (2020) Su 07 Min Te No. 55

Reason for adjudication: Paragraph 2 of Article 17 of the Arbitration Law of the China stipulates that "an arbitration agreement concluded by a person without or with limited capacity for civil conduct" is an invalid arbitration agreement. Paragraph 2 of Article 18 of the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that "minors over the age of 16 who take their own labor income as their main source of livelihood shall be regarded as persons with full capacity for civil conduct", The "Cooperation Agreement" involved in the case was signed on June 29, 2020. At the time of signing, the applicant Li was at least 16 years old and under 18 years old. He was a student in school and did not rely on his own labor income as his main source of livelihood. He was a person with limited civil capacity. The respondent's defense that Li should be regarded as a person with full capacity for civil conduct is inconsistent with the facts found by this court and is not accepted.