On 20 Nov., the Second International Commercial Court of the Supreme People’s Court made inquiries in Manila Branch of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. et. al v. China National Electric Engineering Co. Ltd. about the reconsideration application for the ruling of suspension order, which is involved in the case of standby letter of credit fraud.
On the morning of 20 Nov. 2020, the Second International Commercial Court of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) in Beijing made inquiries from the applicants, Manila Branch of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., Shanghai Branch of Australia and New Zealand Banking (China) Co. Ltd., the respondent China National Electric Engineering Co. Ltd. and the third party Bank of Jiangsu Co., Ltd. about the reconsideration application for the ruling of suspension order, which is involved in the case of standby letter of credit fraud.
After the inquiries, the Second International Commercial Court convened a case management conference to solicit opinions from all parties on issues, including the notarization and authentication of the power of attorney issued by the foreign party concerned, addresses for service, time limit for presenting evidence, forms of evidence, exchange of evidence, pre-trial meeting, time for trial, whether to consolidate the trial with the other related case, and to determine the timetable for each procedure of the case.
The SPC stipulates the system for case management conference in Article 17 of the Rules of Procedure for International Commercial Courts (for Trial Implementation) (the Rules, 國際商事法庭程序規則(試行)), which was implemented in 2018. In accordance with the Rules, the case management office shall, within seven working days upon service of the indictment and other materials to the defendant, require the parties concerned and/or the entrusted persons thereof to come to court for the case management conference, discuss and determine the pre-trial mediation method and the time limit for mediation.
Meanwhile, the Second International Commercial Court served the Opinion Solicitation Form for Pre-trial Diversion Procedures to the parties concerned in accordance with the Rules and the relevant provisions of the “one-stop” mechanism for diversified resolutions of international commercial disputes, soliciting opinions from the parties concerned on the possible “one-stop” dispute resolution of the case, such as by mediation, arbitration and litigation.
The case is heard by a collegiate panel, formed by five judges of the International Commercial Court of the SPC, namely, Shen Hongyu (沈紅雨), Ren Xuefeng (任雪峰), Zhang Xueyi (張雪楳), Yu Xiaohan (余曉漢), and Guo Zaiyu (郭載宇), and will be tried in court in the near future.
Contributors: Yanru Chen 陳彥茹
