Application of Act and other limitation enactments to arbitration

(1) This Act and any other enactment relating to the limitation of actions shall apply to arbitrations as they apply to actions in the Supreme Court. (2) Notwithstanding any term in an arbitration agreement to the effect that no cause of action shall accrue in respect of any matter required by the agreement to be referred until an award is made under the agreement, the cause of action shall, for the purpose of this Act and of any other such enactment, whether in their application to arbitrations or to other proceedings, be deemed to have accrued in respect of any such matter at the time when it would have accrued but for that term in the agreement. 25 (3) For the purpose of this Act and of any other enactment as aforesaid, an arbitration shall be deemed to be commenced when one party to the arbitration serves on the other party or parties a notice requiring him or them to appoint an arbitrator or to agree to the appointment of an arbitrator, or, where the arbitration agreement provides that the reference shall be to a person named or designated in the agreement, requiring him or them to submit the dispute to the person so named or designated. (4) Any notice served under subsection (3) of this section may be served either, (a) by delivering it to the person on whom it is to be served; (b) by leaving it at the usual or last known place of abode in Belize of that person; or (c) by sending it by post in a registered letter addressed to that person at his usual or last known place of abode in Belize, as well as in any other manner provided in the arbitration agreement. (5) Where a notice is sent by post in the manner prescribed by paragraph (c) of subsection (4) of this section, service thereof shall, unless the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been effected at the time at which the letter would have been delivered in the ordinary course of post. (6) Where the Supreme Court orders that an award be set aside or orders, after the commencement of an arbitration, that the arbitration shall cease to have effect with respect to the dispute referred, the court may further order that the period between the commencement of the arbitration and the date of the order of the court shall be excluded in computing the time prescribed by this Act or any such enactment as aforesaid for 26 the commencement of proceedings, including arbitration, with respect to the dispute referred. (7) This section shall apply to an arbitration under an Act as well as to an arbitration pursuant to an arbitration agreement, and subsections (3), (4) and (5) of this section, shall have effect, in relation to an arbitration under an Act, as if for the references to the arbitration agreement there were substituted references to such of the provisions of the Act or of any order, scheme, rules, regulations or by-laws made thereunder as relate to the arbitration. (8) In this section, the expressions “arbitration agreement” and “award” have the same meanings as in the Arbitration Act, Cap. 125.