§ 172.114.Default of Party

Two failures, two different consequences, and the difference is the heart of the section.

A claimant who does not state its claim ends the arbitration. The tribunal shall terminate the proceeding where the claimant fails, without showing sufficient cause, to communicate the statement of claim under Section 172.109.

The logic is that there is nothing to decide. An arbitration without a stated claim has no subject.

A respondent who does not state a defense does not lose. The tribunal continues the arbitration without treating that failure as an admission of the claimant’s allegations.

That is the opposite of a court default judgment, where failing to answer can concede the allegations outright.

The claimant still has to prove its case. Silence from the respondent shifts nothing.

The rule protects enforceability abroad. An award entered against a party who never appeared is scrutinised wherever it is taken, and one resting on proof survives that scrutiny better than one resting on silence.

Sufficient cause is the escape in both cases. A party who shows it is not treated as having failed.

Both rules yield to party agreement. Each subsection opens with "except as agreed by the parties."

The claim and defense definitions in Section 172.002 do not apply here, which is why the section speaks of the claim and the defense in their ordinary sense.