Assigned contract arbitration clause can bind the assignee when counterparty accepts performance and dealings with the successor.

An arbitration clause in an assigned contract may also pass to the assignee where the contract is transferable and the counterparty's conduct shows acceptance of the assignee in the original party's shoes. The court found that performance, payments, correspondence, and extension of the bank guarantee all reflected such acceptance, and there was no term requiring a fresh arbitration agreement after assignment. The tribunal's view that no arbitration agreement existed because the petitioner was not an original signatory was legally erroneous. The jurisdictional objection was therefore unsustainable, the dismissal was set aside, and the arbitral proceedings were directed to continue.

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Issues: Whether, on assignment of the underlying contracts and the parties' subsequent conduct, the arbitration agreement contained in the original contracts also stood assigned so as to confer jurisdiction on the arbitral tribunal.

Analysis: The contracts were assignable, and the record showed that the respondent accepted the petitioner as the successor in relation to performance, payments, correspondence, and extension of the bank guarantee. The arbitration clause formed part of the same contracts and there was no stipulation requiring a fresh arbitration agreement after assignment. The Tribunal's view that there was no arbitration agreement because the petitioner was not an original signatory was found to be legally erroneous, particularly in light of the parties' conduct and the settled principle that an arbitration clause may travel with an assigned contract when the underlying agreement is acted upon by both sides.

Conclusion: The arbitration agreement stood assigned with the contracts, and the petitioner had locus to invoke arbitration; the Tribunal's jurisdictional objection was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The jurisdictional dismissal was set aside and the arbitral proceedings were directed to continue.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an underlying contract is validly assigned and the assignee is ed by the counterparty as stepping into the assignor's shoes, the arbitration clause contained in that contract may also stand assigned, and no fresh arbitration agreement is required unless the contract expressly excludes such transfer.

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