Recently, Zhong Lun won a complete victory for a chemical company from Henan Province (the “Client") in a cross-border parallel litigation case concerning contract for the international sale of goods before Henan Provincial High People’s Court. The case involved several parallel proceedings in China, the Netherlands, and Belgium, covering difficult issues such as the application of the principle of non bis in idem and the doctrine of forum non conveniens, the determination of the “place where the contract is performed" as the connecting factors for jurisdictional purpose under different jurisdictions, the extra-territorial service of judicial documents, the determination of fundamental breach of contract and the scope of damages under CISG, and the allocation of legal fees. It is a typical case in which procedural and substantive matters were skillfully handled, and Chinese and foreign lawyers were closely integrated to achieve success. This case has fully demonstrated Zhong Lun's rich experience and expertise in handling complex cross-border disputes. The team led by Wilson Wei Huo, a partner of Zhong Lun, provided full legal services to the Client.

In this case, the Client exported chemical raw materials to a Belgian company with a CIF (Antwerp) trade term and a sight letter of credit as the terms of payment. In the course of the contract, a dispute arose between the parties regarding the amendment of the letter of credit, delivery arrangements, and cancellation of the order. The Belgian company applied to the Dutch court for the seizure and auction of the Client's goods arriving at the port of Rotterdam and subsequently filed a lawsuit in the Belgian court (the “Belgian Lawsuit").

Upon engagement, Zhong Lun assisted the Client in filing a lawsuit before a Chinese court (the “Chinese Lawsuit"). In the course of the proceedings, Zhong Lun successfully persuaded the local district court to serve the Belgian company with the judicial documents by post rather than through diplomatic channels, breaking the procedural bottleneck of extra-territorial service which could take six months or even longer. At the same time, the Court also rejected the Belgian company's procedural objections on the grounds like “the Chinese lawsuit violates the principle of non bis in idem", “the doctrine of forum non conveniens", and “the place where the contract is performed shall be the place of delivery", etc. Based on Zhong Lun's detailed review of the facts of the case and comprehensive elaborations of the scope of fundamental breach of contract and damages under CISG, the Court ultimately found that the Belgian company had committed a fundamental breach of contract and upheld the Client's claims. In particular, despite the fact that the contract in question did not specifically provide for the allocation of legal fees, the Court ordered the losing Belgian company to compensate legal fees the Client incurred for both domestic and foreign lawyers in relation to the case.

In the meantime, Zhong Lun also worked closely with lawyers in Netherlands and Belgium, while actively assisting the Client to challenge the jurisdiction of the Belgian court and the validity of service of judicial documents, and issuing PRC legal opinions on issues such as “the determination of the ‘place where the contract is performed’ as the connecting factor for jurisdictional purpose under the PRC law". The complete victory in the Chinese Lawsuit also provided strong support for the Client's claims in the Belgian Lawsuit.

Against the backdrop of increased uncertainty in the global economic and trade environment and the growing number of cross-border commercial disputes, Zhong Lun will continue to utilize its expertise and experience to provide clients with high quality, professional and efficient legal services in foreign/overseas dispute resolution.