Tag: Case and Fatwa Summary

The Supreme Court ruled that powers of attorney issued in GCC member states do not require foreign legalisation procedures to be valid in Oman. Separately, a court-approved settlement is a judicial judgment, but breaching articles 162 and 171 of the Civil and Commercial Procedures Law does not render it void, because the law does not prescribe nullity as the penalty for those breaches.

The Supreme Court held that a religious fatwa issued by the Grand Mufti is not binding on the judiciary because the objective of a religious fatwa is simply to respond to the query of the inquirer based on the facts they present.

The Supreme Court held that an arbitration clause is not a matter of public order and may be waived expressly or impliedly, but whether a party has in fact waived it is a question of fact for the trial court. A letter in which a party denies being bound by any agreement with the other side, and on that basis declines a proposal to arbitrate, does not amount to a waiver of the arbitration clause in that agreement.

The Supreme Court held that regularly maintained commercial books constitute valid evidence for a merchant against an adversary merchant in disputes concerning commercial acts, even if the commercial books are created by the merchant relying on them.

The Supreme Court held that a final judgment of a Bahraini court finding that no arbitration clause existed in an agreement between parties constitutes res judicata in Oman under the Riyadh Arab Agreement for Judicial Cooperation, and Omani courts cannot dismiss a lawsuit for arbitration based on that same clause.