Mealey's International Arbitration : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's International Arbitration

September 26, 2023
Mexican Filmmaker’s Son Seeks 9th Circuit Review Of $8.7M Award Based On ‘Fraud’

SAN FRANCISCO — A Mexican film producer’s son and his companies argue in an appellant brief to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a district court erred by confirming an $8.7 million arbitral award in favor of his father’s estate, companies and other children, arguing that the lower court incorrectly found that they untimely raised a challenge to the tribunal’s jurisdiction based on allegedly forged evidence.
September 25, 2023
Kellogg Brown & Root Wins $8M After Judge Offsets Awards To Kuwaiti Firm

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Virginia federal judge on Sept. 22 entered judgment worth more than $8 million in favor of an American company and against a Kuwaiti company for logistics contracts performed during the Iraq war and later disputed after offsetting separate awards and joint stipulations for monetary amounts in favor of each party.
September 25, 2023
Colombia Objects To Diving Company’s $10B Claim For Shipwrecked Treasure

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) published the Republic of Colombia’s objections to arbitration claims for more than $10 billion brought against it by an American diving company that claims that it was deprived of its share of “the biggest treasure in the history of humanity,” a Spanish galleon which sunk in 1708 that Colombia asserts it alone discovered.
September 25, 2023
Oil Company Seeks Vacatur Of Split Tribunal’s Award In Ecuadorian Oil Dispute

NEW YORK — A Texas oil company filed a cross-petition in New York federal court seeking to vacate a split tribunal’s arbitral award ordering it to pay a Chinese oil company roughly $3.7 million in attorney fees after rejecting its claim for $309 million as barred by the res judicata effect of an earlier award, writing that the tribunal manifestly disregarded the law by “declining to address” its “substantive claims.”
August 30, 2023
COMMENTARY: The Prague Rules Don’t Rule: A Look Into The IBA Challenger, Five Years Later

By Judith Swartz and Haley Son
August 30, 2023
COMMENTARY: The Approach Of The French Courts To Violations Of International Public Policy: Cour de Cassation Pinpointing Recent Developments And Trends

By Maria Mironova
September 22, 2023
Mexico Agrees With United States’ Objections To Canadians’ $15B NAFTA Claim

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published the Mexican government’s submission in a pending North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) arbitration brought by two Canadian pipeline companies against the United States for canceling their permit in which Mexico states that it shares the United States’ position that NAFTA members did not consent to arbitrate new NAFTA claims after the agreement expired.
September 21, 2023
Judge Confirms $633K Award To Dutch Shipper, Rejects Bias Claim Against Arbitrator

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A New York federal judge granted a Dutch shipbroker’s motion to confirm an arbitration award in its favor worth more than $633,000 for violation of a maritime contract and denied a Maine company’s cross-motion to vacate and motion to disqualify the shipbroker’s lawyer, rejecting its arguments that the attorney’s ex parte communications were improper.
September 20, 2023
ICSID Tribunal Bifurcates Real Estate Investors’ 30M Euro Claim Against Serbia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Sept. 19 published a tribunal’s order granting the Republic of Serbia’s request for bifurcation of claims brought against it by Cypriot and Canadian investors, ordering that it will first address its jurisdiction over the investors’ claims that Serbia caused them 30 million euros in damages by building traffic infrastructure on land they were developing.
September 19, 2023
Cypriot Investor May Attach Libya’s Assets To Enforce $27M Award, Judge Says

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Sept. 18 granted a Cypriot company’s motion for permission to begin attaching Libya’s assets to enforce an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitral award worth more than $27 million for the attempted expropriation of the company’s investment, two months after the award’s confirmation was affirmed on appeal.
September 19, 2023
Bank Appeals Court’s Order To Freeze Assets Pending Chad Pipeline Arbitration

NEW YORK — Two banking entities on Sept. 18 filed a notice of appeal in a New York federal court after a judge ordered them to direct their affiliate branch in Gabon to comply with an arbitrator’s emergency award requiring it keep a Cameroonian pipeline company’s $151 million account frozen pending the outcome of an arbitration between shareholders including a Bahamian investor and the Republic of Chad.
September 18, 2023
Government Urges High Court To Uphold ‘Bedrock Principle’ Of Chevron Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. secretary of Commerce, two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively, the government) urge the U.S. Supreme Court in a Sept. 15 brief to not overrule the doctrine of Chevron deference in a challenge to fishery regulations that were upheld by the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, writing that doing so could “cause disruption” to complex federal regulatory schemes.
September 15, 2023
Magistrate Judge Stays Bid To Enforce 101M Euro Award Pending Intra-EU Appeals

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal magistrate judge in a docket entry granted the Kingdom of Spain’s motion to stay a petition by Luxembourg and Netherlands investors seeking to enforce an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award worth more than 101 million euros against it pending the outcome of three appeals that all involve the same question of whether a federal court may enforce an intra-European Union arbitral award.
September 15, 2023
2nd Circuit Won’t Stay Bermuda Arbitration Pending Appeal Over Bias Allegation

NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel has denied a motion it “construed as seeking to enjoin arbitration pending appeal” in a bid to replace one arbitrator in a proceeding concerning two reinsurance contracts between Bermuda-based entities.
September 15, 2023
ICSID Ends Arbitration After Grenada, Resort Investors Settle Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Sept. 13 published a tribunal’s order taking note of the discontinuance of an arbitration brought by a group of U.S. resort investors against the government of Grenada for abruptly halting their development of a hotel refurbishment and resort project after the parties settled the dispute.
September 13, 2023
Award-Creditor Says Moldova Still Owes $58.6M Despite French Court’s Vacatur

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A British Virgin Islands entity filed a brief in District of Columbia federal court opposing the Republic of Moldova’s motion for relief from the court’s judgments related to a $58.6 million award against it for an electricity contract dispute based on the award’s recent vacatur by a French appellate court, writing that the French court’s ruling should not be granted comity or be treated as res judicata in the district court.
September 12, 2023
Bank Opposes Arbitrator’s Emergency Order To Freeze Funds Pending Chad Arbitration

NEW YORK — Two banking entities filed a brief in New York federal court opposing a Bahamian investor’s petition for injunctive relief in aid of its pending arbitration against the Republic of Chad for allegedly harming a Cameroonian oil pipeline company the investor partly owns, writing that the court should defer to a Gabonese court where an application to unfreeze the roughly $151 million account is pending despite the investor’s argument that Chad “is taking illegal steps amid a military coup in Gabon” to seize the funds.
September 12, 2023
Judge Confirms $23M Award In Japanese Company’s Favor For Unlicensed Game Sales

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Sept. 11 confirmed an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitral award worth roughly $23 million and 60 million yen in favor of a Japanese company for a dispute over unlicensed sales of a video game by a U.S. company and its CEO.
September 08, 2023
Judge Won’t Stay $31M Judgment Against Haiti For Fuel Delivery Row Pending Appeal

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Sept. 7 denied a motion by the Republic of Haiti (ROH) for a stay of the court’s more than $31 million judgment enforcing a confirmed arbitral award against ROH for a fuel delivery dispute pending its appeal to the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and granted the creditor’s request to enforce the judgment in Texas federal court.
September 08, 2023
ICSID Takes Note Of Discontinuance Of Copper Miner’s Claim Against Zambia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal on Sept. 8 published its order taking note of the discontinuance of an arbitration brought by a company that owns a copper mine in Zambia against the Republic of Zambia, three years after arbitration was commenced.
September 07, 2023
Judge OKs Award Ordering Parties To End ‘Duplicative’ Peru, Guatemala Arbitrations

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Sept. 6 confirmed a New York-seated tribunal’s award ordering the respondents in the arbitration to terminate two separate arbitrations pending in Peru and Guatemala pertaining to the same shareholders’ dispute over the New York tribunal-ordered sale of a Latin American telecommunications infrastructure company, which the Guatemalan tribunal recently ordered enjoined.
September 05, 2023
Hungarian Company Tells Court Croatia Has ‘No Valid Defenses’ To $249M Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Hungarian gas company on Sept. 1 filed its opposition in District of Columbia federal court to the Republic of Croatia’s motion to dismiss its bid to confirm an arbitral award worth more than $249 million for harming its investment and filed notice of intent to move for summary judgment in which it says Croatia “has no valid defenses to enforcement of the Award.”
September 01, 2023
Nonsignatory Must Arbitrate Oil Barge Liability Dispute With Insurer, Judge Rules

TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge on Aug. 31 granted a motion to compel arbitration of an oil transport barge guarantor’s third-party claims against its English insurer for marine protection and indemnity (P&I) coverage in a dispute over more than $6.2 million in costs sought by the United States for removal of roughly 150,000 gallons of petroleum products from the barge after it was declared a “potential hazard.”
August 30, 2023
Indian Company, Shareholders Ask 9th Circuit For En Banc Review Of $1.3B Award

SAN FRANCISCO — A liquidated Indian company and its Mauritian shareholders and U.S. subsidiary separately petitioned the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 29 for rehearing en banc of its ruling reversing the confirmation of an arbitral award against an Indian state worth more than $1.3 billion for lack of jurisdiction, arguing that the en banc court should reconsider its precedent on minimum contacts analysis under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).