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

Mealey's International Arbitration

July 22, 2024
Judge Says Award-Debtor’s Wife Owes $217K To Satisfy CIETAC Award

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge ordered a sightseeing balloon company owner’s wife to pay more than $217,000 to a Chinese company to satisfy a Chinese International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) arbitral award after finding that the owner transferred assets to his wife to evade enforcement of the award.
June 27, 2024
COMMENTARY: Prague Rules Six Years After Their Publication: Where Are We Now?

By Andrew Tetley and Diana Stekhnovych
July 19, 2024
Nebraska Company Opposes $927K Award To French Entity In Shipping Dispute

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska grain seller urges a Nebraska federal court not to confirm a Society of Marine Arbitrators (SMA) arbitral award against it for nearly $1 million in favor of a French buyer, writing that the French entity can’t seek confirmation because it has failed to provide a certified copy of the underlying arbitral award.
July 18, 2024
Ukrainian Company Defends Award Worth $218M Against Russian Motion To Dismiss

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Ukrainian electricity company urges a District of Columbia federal court to reject The Russian Federation’s arguments for dismissal of its petition to confirm a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) award worth more than $218 million for the expropriation of its investments in Crimea after Russia annexed the region.
July 17, 2024
Airport Contractor Seeking $91M Asks Court To Approve Service To Peru

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Argentine investor and its Peruvian subsidiary on July 16 filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for issuance of a letter rogatory to serve the Republic of Peru notice of their petition to enforce an arbitral award worth more than $91 million for the unfair termination of an airport construction contract.
July 17, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms $10M Award In Dispute Over Mexican Filmmaker’s Estate

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed an award worth $10 million against a Mexican film producer’s son and his companies, and in favor of the producer’s estate, companies and other children, after finding that evidence of fraud in related probate proceedings in Mexico was untimely introduced and could have been located earlier.
July 17, 2024
Spanish Company Asks Court To Confirm $110M Award Against Venezuela

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Spanish company on July 16 filed a petition in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to confirm a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal’s award against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela worth more than $110 million for destroying its Venezuelan subsidiary through forced price-fixing and other improper state actions.
July 16, 2024
English Panel Affirms Attorney Fees To Nigeria After Set-Aside Of $11B Award

LONDON — An English appellate panel granted an Irish-owned company’s application for permission to appeal an attorney fees award against it worth roughly 43 million British pounds sterling, which it was ordered to pay the Federal Republic of Nigeria for its costs incurred in obtaining the set-aside of an arbitral award worth more than $11 billion, but dismissed the company’s arguments that the fees should have been awarded in Nigerian currency.
July 16, 2024
Judge Orders Arbitration Of Coverage Dispute Over Hurricane Ida Damages

BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana federal judge granted a group of insurers’ motion to compel arbitration of claims brought against them by a commercial property owner seeking payment for damages from Hurricane Ida, finding under principles of equitable estoppel that the arbitration agreement is enforceable as to the domestic insurer as well as the foreign insurers.
July 11, 2024
Indian Company Urges High Court To Review Minimum Contacts In $1.3B Award Row

WASHINGTON D.C. — A liquidated Indian satellite company filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to review the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling on the applicability of minimum contacts analysis to jurisdiction over a foreign entity, writing that the Ninth Circuit’s precedent on this issue is wrong and was improperly applied in a ruling reversing the confirmation of a $1.3 billion arbitral award in its favor.
June 28, 2024
4th Circuit Affirms Judgments Confirming $3.6M Awards In Chinese Real Estate Row

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 27 affirmed a federal court’s $3.6 million judgment enforcing arbitral awards against a real estate investor in Maryland after finding that the forum was proper and the judgment won’t cause conflict with Chinese currency control laws and in a separate ruling denied the investor’s motion to vacate the monetary award.
June 28, 2024
High Court Overrules Chevron Deference, Changes Standard For Regulatory Review

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 voted 6-3 to overrule the doctrine of Chevron deference as incompatible with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations, changing governing precedent for federal courts reviewing agencies’ regulatory actions.
June 25, 2024
ICSID Rejects Canadian Gold Mining Investor’s $180M Claim Against Colombia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on June 24 published a tribunal’s award in which it found jurisdiction over a Canadian gold mining company’s claims against the Republic of Colombia for more than $180 million in damages but rejected its claims that Colombia expropriated its investment by imposing environmental restrictions on its mining activities.
June 25, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms $268K Sanction Against Saudi Heirs’ Lawyer For Fake Article

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel granted a motion for summary affirmance filed by Chevron Corp. and Chevron U.S.A. (collectively, Chevron) and affirmed a $268,000 sanction against an attorney for the heirs of a Saudi sheikh for filing a fake news article during an appeal over an $18 billion award.
June 25, 2024
Split Tribunal Orders Colombia To Pay Investor $10M For Nickel Royalties Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on June 24 published a split tribunal’s award finding that the Republic of Colombia breached its obligations toward a British investor by improperly assessing royalties owed by the investor’s wholly owned Colombian subsidiary for its nickel mining activities under a national concession agreement.
June 24, 2024
Industrial Equipment Maker’s Canadian Arbitration Provision Not Binding, Judge Says

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana federal judge denied a Canadian industrial equipment maker’s motion to dismiss a breach of contract lawsuit brought against it by a customer who claims that its machinery did not function correctly, finding that under the U.N.’s Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), the parties’ contract does not contain a binding arbitration clause.
June 24, 2024
Russian Award-Creditor Dismisses RICO Claims Against Defendants In Default

LOS ANGELES — A Russian award-creditor who has been suing to enforce a London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) award worth more than $92 million on June 21 voluntarily dismissed his claims for violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) against the remaining defendants against whom default was previously entered, after entering a previous stipulation of dismissal against a Monaco bank and administrator accused of conspiring to shield the award-debtor’s assets from enforcement.
June 21, 2024
Mexico Urges Tribunal To Dismiss Noteholders’ $219M NAFTA Claim As Improper

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on June 20 published the United Mexican States’s memorial on jurisdiction demanding the dismissal on various procedural grounds of a pending arbitration brought against it by two American entities that claim that they were improperly barred from obtaining payment for debt securities worth more than $219 million.
June 21, 2024
$72M Judgment Entered Against Chinese Company For Source Code Misappropriation

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge entered judgment worth more than $72 million against a Chinese company reflecting a confirmed arbitral award against it for misappropriating an American company’s source code and later breaching a settlement agreement under which it had agreed to let the American company review its code for further use of its trade secrets.
June 20, 2024
$75M Judgment Entered In Chinese-Brazilian Solar Panel Dispute

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge entered a judgment worth more than $75 million in favor of a Brazilian energy company reflecting the court’s earlier confirmation of an arbitral award in its favor for breach of contract claims against a Chinese solar panel manufacturer.
June 19, 2024
Poland Asks To Dismiss Or Stay Bid To Enforce $50M Award For Repealed Penalty

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republic of Poland filed a motion in District of Columbia federal court seeking to dismiss or stay a Cypriot energy investor’s petition to enforce an arbitral award against it worth more than $50 million, which was issued pursuant to the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) after Poland refused to refund the investor’s subsidiary for a 450 million Polish zloty fine that was later repealed by Polish courts.
June 18, 2024
Judge Confirms $50M ICC Award In Airline Catering Dispute Despite Settlement

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on June 17 granted a catering company’s petition to confirm a Singapore-seated International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal’s award in its favor worth more than $50 million against a South Korean airline, two weeks after denying the parties’ joint stipulation to stay the case in light of a settlement.
June 18, 2024
‘Lord Of The Dance’ Must Arbitrate Defects Dispute With Insurer, Irish Judge Rules

DUBLIN, Ireland — The High Court of Ireland rejected dancer and businessman Michael Flatley’s bid to avoid arbitration of a 30 million euro dispute over defects in his County Cork mansion that he claims caused him and his family members severe health issues, rejecting his argument that the policy’s arbitration agreement is unfair and unenforceable.
June 17, 2024
2nd Circuit Vacates Gabon Account Freeze Order In Pipeline Dispute

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 14 vacated a federal judge’s ruling giving an effect to an emergency arbitrator’s order directing shareholders of a Cameroonian pipeline company to leave a bank account in Gabon frozen, writing that the judge lacked authority to order two Citibank entities to compel their Gabonese affiliate to freeze the $151 million account.