Offshore International SA v Banco Central SA: ChD 1977

A standby letter of credit was issued by a Spanish bank and advised (but not confirmed) by a New York bank payable in New York.
Held: The governing law was the law of New York, as the place where the letter of credit was opened, the documents were to be presented and payment was to be made, rather than the law of Spain, the law of the country where the issuing bank was situated. The court also considered the duties of an issuing or confirming banker towards the seller of the goods in connection with a Letter of Credit. The court emphasised the difficulties for an advising bank if it had to consider its obligations under a foreign law and emphasised the difficulty which would arise if the advising bank had confirmed the letter of credit.

Judges:

Ackner J

Citations:

[1977] 1 WLR 399

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

FollowedPower Curber International Ltd v The National Bank of Kuwait CA 1981
The advising bank on a letter of credit was situated in Florida. The place where the credit was payable was North Carolina, and the place where the issuing bank had its place of business was Kuwait.
Held: (Waterhouse J dissenting) The contract . .
CitedPt Pan Indonesia Bank Ltd Tbk v Marconi Communications International Ltd CA 27-Apr-2005
The parties disputed the jurisdiction of the English courts over a letter of credit. It foresaw payment here and in sterling, made by the English bank as against the appropriate documents. Authority had been given for service out of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Banking

Updated: 24 July 2022; Ref: scu.224969