Background

A claimant filed a case against defendants and requested the court to validate a joint venture contract dated on 30/05/1988.

The court stated it would not consider the case because it had been previously settled.

The claimant appealed the ruling before the court of appeal. The court abandoned the appealed ruling and ruled the contract should be validated.

Decision

The defendants appealed the ruling before the court of cassation and stated in their grounds of appeal that the ruling had insufficient evidence of causation and the ruling in the previous case had concluded that the contract was unable to be partitioned and should not be validated because it was illegal.

The court stated this argument was valid because Article 53 of Kuwait Law No. 39/1980 stipulated that a ruling which gains legal power is on the issue that the ruling settled. The court stated the court had validated the mentioned contract and ignored the legal power of the ruling in the previous case on the contract.