Commercial & International Trade Dispute Resolution

Rahman’s Chambers, is one of the key players in handling litigation in the area of commercial laws involving LC payment, payment under Proforma Invoice or Commercial contract, stoppage of LC payment, money claim under LC or back to back LC, claim against the carrier, demurrage claim, the release of cargo from Customs, Port Authority and shipping agents, shipowner, trade fraud involving house bill, bank endorsement, amendment, GSP certificate, etc. We are advising and representing Clients dealing with international trade and local commercial matters in different capacities for nearly a decade. The Chambers and Partners 2023 Asia Pacific Guide ranked us as under the spotlight for Shipping for consecutive seven years which covers commercial and international trade works. Chambers and Partners 2019 commented:  “Offers further capabilities in international trade and commercial litigation”.

Rahman’s Chambers has been ranked for Dispute Resolution for the second time, in addition to being consecutively ranked for Corporate & Finance. 

–Chambers & Partners, 2023-2021

“Another interviewee reports: “I have a high-level opinion of them, with one of their strengths being a commitment to delivering on time.”

–Chambers & Partners, 2020

“Offers further capabilities in international trade and commercial litigation.” ; “As one client interviewee explains “he is a knowledgeable and very co-operative person. I have discussed many issues with him and he gives me the right suggestions.” 

–Chambers & Partners, 2019

“Their response times are excellent and they make you feel generally very well informed..” ; “Successfully represented Bangladesh Bank in a dispute regarding the duties of the carrier under foreign exchange regulations. This was a landmark decision which clarified the legality of the house bill of lading for the sea leg of a journey”

 –Chambers & Partners, 2018 

“Rahman’s Chambers handles foreign investment and disputes involving corporate transactions…”

–Legal 500, 2018

Rahman’s Chambers is recommended for General Business Law

-AsiaLaw 2021

Our experiences are as follows:

LC PAYMENT 

  • We have successfully resolved a dispute involving payment under Letter of Credit for supplier, ITOCHU CHEMICAL FRONTIER Corporation (Japan), for supply of chemicals. Several cases were withdrawn and the LC payment was made to our client with our active assistance both at court and also through out of court settlement.
  • We have successfully argued before Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif And Hon’ble Mr. Justice Ahmed Sohel in a civil revision involving stopping payment under a letter of credit on the ground of fraud. Our client, an MNC, the beneficiary and the supplier of food grain. The Hon’ble Court was pleased to discharge the rule and vacated the injunction granted back in 2016 as the fraud allegation was unfounded.
  • The Chambers acted for How Are You Textiles Ltd of Taiwan, a 100% foreign owned seller and successfully recovered payment within 6 months by filing both money claim and criminal case over a complicated LC related documentary fraud involving collusion of buyer and buyer’s bank.
  • We have successfully represented South East Bank Limited in LC Payment related disputes in Rahul Computex vs. Fahami Apparels Ltd.
  • We have successfully represented Hossain Dyeing and Printing Mills Limited, a concern of Anwar Group of Industries in the recovery of the claim for delivery of fabrics under sales contract where payment has been illegally refused by LC opening Bank and later by the buyer under the sales contract. Recently, the Hon’ble Court passed judgment and Order in favor of our client decreeing monetary payment against the buyer after years of battle in Court.
  • We have advised a Malaysian finance company over disputes involving payment under a letter of credit by local L/C opening Bank involving fraudulent transactions having an impact on consignee as to its roles & responsibility in a suit filed in the admiralty court.

BANK GUARANTEE 

  • We successfully assisted our client, Khan Bahadur Group, in resolving a dispute involving a fraudulent drawing of payment guarantee by a supplier and were successfully able to resolve the dispute through the court as the supplier withdrew its fraudulent claim.

DEFECTIVE GOODS 

  • We have worked with Allen & Gledhill LLP, Singapore in advising our common client, CR3, on a complex issue involving failure to make payment against a supply. The complexity was arising due to the forex regulation and also dollar crisis in the market. We were successfully able to initiate the negotiation between the parties by taking appropriate legal steps and also provided possible solution available under Bangladeshi laws.
  • We assisted a Canadian client in recovering money paid against supply of defective goods.
  • We are pleased to announce that we have successfully helped our client, a multinational corporation (MNC) with a representative office in Bangladesh, receive their outstanding payment under a letter of credit (L/C) from a local bank. The payment was for a cross-border international shipment of goods consisting of industrial-grade sewing machines. The MNC had been waiting for payment of their shipments for a long time, and our Team under our concerned Department was able to successfully secure the release of the funds and resolve the issues due to our expertise in cross-border trade finance and our ability to handle complex and challenging cases, to the client’s satisfaction.
  • We along with Allen & Gledhill LLP, Singapore have handled a complex dispute involving failure to make payment against the supply of goods due to complexity arising from dollar crisis and also our forex regulations. We have assisted the client in resolving the dispute out of court by analysing practical and commercial realities and also forex regulations.
  • We were involved in a dispute resolution for Lantabur Group, involving the supply of dysfunctional and defective fire detection and protection system (Hydrant & Sprinkler) involving non-compliance report of ACCORD.

DISCOUNT CLAIM 

  • We have advised owners of a 5-star hotel on issues involving the method of calculating revenue to resolve differences of opinion with an international hotel chain.

REJECTION/FAILURE TO SUPPLY

  • We assisted in the process of resolving the dispute for a Brunei-based corporation involving international trade-related payment and failure to supply and refund.

SHIPPING DOCUMENTS 

  • We have represented Central Bank successfully in the landmark case Freight Management and 16 others vs. Bangladesh Bank reported in 2 CLR (HCD) 586; 19 MLR (HCD)336 involving the legality of House Bill of Lading/Receive for shipment of Bill of Lading. In 16 Judicial review cases filed against the central bank with regard to the endorsement of House bill of lading without endorsing Master Bill, Chambers successfully contested the cases for Central Bank. MR. Rahman successfully argued on the confusion caused by House bill of Lading. The judgment was reported in two leading law report and is considered by many as a landmark decision.
  • We have successfully challenged a documentary fraud on behalf of importer ‘Saturn Textiles Ltd.’ involving the supply of defective fabrics, raw material of RMG, by filing suit in lower court and also higher court and were able to obtain an injunction on payment under Letter of Credit on the ground of fraud in 2013.

Practice Guide – Commercial 

Commercial and International Trade is a complex area of law. Specializing in this subject requires in-depth knowledge as well as practical experiences. Although Bangladesh is witnessing significant growth in Garments and Textiles sector and few other sectors, there are issues associated with awareness of laws, regulations and best practices for international trade. There are significant volumes of cases pending involving Commercial transactions and also notable claims arises regularly which involves Cross-Border Transactions. Bringing Cross Border claim by initiating arbitration process or by filling litigation in different territories are not very uncommon in a situation where parties avoided seeking legal assistance at early stages of trade documentation. Accordingly, Legal representation for local and international buyers and sellers, Banks, Carrier, Stevedores are frequently required within national territory and sometimes internationally. Rahman’s Chambers is one of the leading Law Firm in the area of Commercial Litigation and dispute resolutions.

Disputes Resolution clause in the commercial contract known as sales contract or proforma invoice is extremely important. Parties dont get the opportunity to amend the clauses once disputes arises.  The outcome of the commercial disputes heavily dependent upon the terms and conditions of such contract.

The Honorable Appellate Division of Supreme Court of Bangladesh in a recent judgment confirmed that a summary suit is required to be filed in the District Court and not in the High Court. In a summary suit the court pass judgment without hearing the defense. The procedure of Summary suit only applicable to limited commercial matters e.g. in any transactions where the parties exchanged negotiable instruments like bills of exchange, hundies, and promissory notes. The objective is to avoid unnecessary delay in the class of cases where speedy judgments are desirable.

As there is no justification of allowing the defendant to contest, there is limited scope for defendant to defend his case. The defend is required to obtains leave from the court. If the court refuse to do so or in default of his obtaining such leave or of his appearance, the allegations in the plaint shall be deemed to be admitted, and the plaintiff shall be entitled to a decree for the principal amount as per the instrument with interest and cost as prescribed by law.

A summary procedure is a fast-track and speedy solution to help prevent an unwanted prolonged lawsuit. The claimant has to decide whether it wants file the summary suit or a regular suit. Due to lack of awareness, confusion as to which court to file the suit, such suit is extremely rate. Since the confusion is cleared by the Hon’ble court as mentioned above, Summary suit without any doubt shall save significant amount of time required in several interlocutory matters, framing of issues, examination of witness and documents, argument etc,  in a suit filed under regular procedure. The said procedure takes nearly two third of the total time of required for a suit.

Where the related contract does not provide any arbitration clause, the companies, businessman who need to recover dues from their customers arising from supply of goods or service, loan etc, where bill of exchange, promissory note is taken as a collateral, may prefer to file summary suit to get a quick judgement.

Due to increase of demand, shipping rates have more than quadrupled on many routes. Businesses and other parties in the supply chain are suffering huge disruption to the movement of goods by container shipping. The importer is receiving goods after long delay. Number of disputes are increasing. Often importers do not have any choice but to wait for the cargo because cancellation is not an option for them. Delay is causing loss, increase of expenses, business loss and it is impacting other participants in the supply chain. Due to volatile dollar market the situation is more complex now as the price of the products is fluctuating. The number of international trade dispute is increasing. Buyers and sellers are now seeing each other in court on claims involving loss and damages suffered from delay. Due to shortage of dollar reserve, commercial banks are more stringent on settling LC payment. LC applicants often tries to stop the payment of LC by filing petition to the court.

Under this volatile situation it is extremely important to make sure that that sales contract or proforma invoices have the relevant terms and conditions for the protection of sellers and buyers. On the other hand, exporters are required to be very selective on accepting LC opening banks, and check their rating, compliance record with UCP and other international trade norms and best practices.

Rahman’s Chambers regularly appear before court and in applicable cases Arbitron/mediation (please see Alternative Dispute Resolution)  on matters related to LC, DA, DP  etc. We have specialized knowledge & experience on foreign exchange guidance, UCP600 etc. Maturity of payment, standard of examination of document, discrepancy, prior acceptance etc are common areas of disputes and are very meticulously analyzed by the Chambers.

The firm has in depth knowledge & experience in handling freight forwarding and C & F related disputes. The landmark case Freight  Management and 16 others vs Bangladesh Bank reported in 2 CLR (HCD) 586; 19 MLR (HCD)336 where the firm has successfully argued before Hon’ble court on the roles of freight forwarder and carrier under existing laws is a testimony of the firm’s ability.

Our Services

  • Recovery of outstanding under proforma invoice or sales of goods contract.
  • Recovery of raw materials, goods supplied.
  • Commercial arbitration, both local & foreign.
  • Disputes on customs clearance and port charges.
  • Disputes on carrier and freight forwarder charges.
  • Release/retention of cargo through court order.

Related Resources - Library

We have a rich library with a mixture of printed and online legal databases. We have printed version of All England Commercial Cases, Indian Digest of  Supreme Court cases, Yearbook Commercial Arbitration of Wolter Kluwer and most law reports of Bangladesh. We subscribe to the online legal database Manuputra providing access to most reputed law reports. Read more

Our Related Links

Reported Cases

  • LC Fraud(Hallmark case) Alvi Spinning Mills Ltd and others vs Govt of Bangladesh 19 MLR(HCD)277
  • International Trade: Freight Management vs. Bangladesh Bank 2 CLR (HCD) 586

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