Arbitration clause scope confirmed where timber and damage claims depended on construing the underlying contract.

A dispute over excess timber, return of timber, and compensation for deterioration fell within the arbitration clause because its resolution required construction and application of the contract binding the parties. The governing test was whether the claim could be determined without recourse to the contract; where the controversy concerned performance, breach, return of goods, or liability flowing from the contractual arrangement, it was treated as arising under or in connection with the contract. As the inspection, rejection, and related contractual terms were integral to the claim, the arbitrators had jurisdiction and the challenge to arbitrability failed.

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Issues: Whether the dispute regarding the claim for excess timber and related reliefs fell within the scope of the arbitration clause and was therefore within the jurisdiction of the arbitrators.

Analysis: The arbitration clause covered any question or dispute arising under the contract or in connection with it, except matters specially provided for otherwise. The governing test was whether determination of the claim required recourse to the contract binding the parties. Where the parties accepted the existence of a binding contract and the controversy concerned performance, breach, return of goods, or liability flowing from the contractual arrangement, the dispute was one arising under or in connection with the contract. The claim for excess timber, return of the timber, and compensation for deterioration could not be separated from the terms of the contract, the inspection and rejection clauses, and the contractual allocation of rights and obligations.

Conclusion: The dispute was covered by the arbitration clause and the arbitrators had jurisdiction to decide it.

Final Conclusion: The appeal failed because the respondent's claim was held to be arbitrable under the contract, and the dismissal of the application below was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: A dispute is within an arbitration clause where resolution of the controversy requires construction and application of the contract binding the parties, even if the claim is framed as one for return of goods or damages.

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