EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Sherif El Hosseny, Malak El Amiry and Farida Degheidy, Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy
2.6.9 Lessor’s Requirement to Pay Taxes/Fees A lessor under an aircraft lease is not required to pay taxes for the enforcement of a lease. However, there are other associated fees that could be incurred such as legal fees, experts’ fees or related deregistration fees. This is in addition to other minimal court charges that are assessed depending on the claim. 2.6.10 Mandatory Notice Periods There are no mandatory notice periods; accordingly, such notice periods are subject to the lease agree - ment. 2.6.11 Lessees’ Entitlement to Claim Immunity Lessees are not entitled to sovereign immunity. How - ever, adding clauses that waive immunity is common practice. Assuming that the lessee is not a governmental authority and pursuant to the provisions of the Civil Code and the Commercial Code, the lessee would not be entitled to any right of immunity on the grounds of sovereign immunity. 2.6.12 Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Decisions Please see 2.6.6 Domestic Courts’ Recognition of For enforcement, arbitration is recommended as the dispute resolution mechanism. As to foreign courts, it is advisable only to use courts in jurisdictions where there is a judicial cooperation treaty with Egypt that satisfies the reciprocity requirement for enforcement of foreign judgments. Arbitration If the Lessee Is Owned by the Egyptian Government or an Organ Thereof Pursuant to a Prime Ministerial Decree, it is not permis - sible for any Egyptian administrative bodies, including ministries, public bodies, government agencies, and their affiliated bodies; or companies affiliated with the state, or to which the state contributes in any way, to take the following measures without first presenting the matter to the Commission (the High Commission for International Arbitration and Disputes): Foreign Judgments/Awards . 2.6.13 Other Relevant Issues
which in either such case would satisfy the criteria set forth in the first point in the list above. In practice, reci - procity is very difficult to prove and, consequently, the enforceability of a foreign judgment issued by jurisdic - tions that do not have treaties with Egypt, is doubtful. The New York Convention Egypt is a signatory to the New York Convention of 1958 On the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. Moreover, pursuant to the Egyptian Arbitration Law, international arbitration awards are enforceable and therefore any arbitral awards ren - dered would be enforced subject to paragraph 5 (d) of the Egyptian Arbitration Law. The following docu - ments must accompany the application for enforce - ment: • an Arabic translation of the award, authenticated by the competent authority if the award was not issued in Arabic; • a copy of the minutes evidencing the deposit of the award with the competent court (usually the Cairo High Court of Appeals); and • a copy of the notification of the award to the party against whom the award has been made. However, Egyptian law provides for an annulment procedure of arbitral awards in specific exceptional cases. 2.6.7 Judgments in Foreign Currencies Egyptian courts may, at their discretion, render judg - ments for a monetary amount in a currency other than Egyptian pounds if they consider that it is the currency the original award or a signed copy; • a copy of the arbitral agreement; which most fairly expresses the plaintiff’s loss. 2.6.8 Limitations on Lessors’ Actions Following Termination There are no limitations on the lessor to recover default interest. However, under Egyptian law, the interest due requiring the payment of default interest cannot exceed 7%, as such transaction is considered to be a commercial one. Any agreement to the contrary may be deemed void.
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