Arbitration – Agency. Where a notice of the commencement of arbitration and the notice of the appointment of an arbitrator had been sent on behalf of the defendant company to an employee of the claimant charterers of a vessel, who had had no actual or ostensible authority to receive it on the claimant's behalf, there had been no effective service of the arbitration proceedings, under the Arbitration Act 1996 (AA 1996) s 17. So held the Commercial Court in allowing the charterers' application, under s 72 AA 1996, to set aside an award made by a sole arbitrator in favour of the defendant, following the detention of its vessel.