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

Mealey's International Arbitration

January 23, 2024
English Judge Applying ‘Novel Approach’ Won’t Set Aside Award Against Zimbabwe

LONDON — An English justice denied the Republic of Zimbabwe’s application to set aside a judgment registering an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award worth more than $125 million against it on sovereign immunity grounds after concluding that “state immunity is irrelevant to applications for registration,” which the justice acknowledged is “a novel approach.”
January 22, 2024
Judge Denies Moldova Relief From $58.6M Judgment After French Court’s Vacatur

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Jan. 19 denied the Republic of Moldova’s motion for relief from the court’s judgments related to a $58.6 million award against it that was vacated in a French court with permission to refile if the ruling is upheld on appeal, writing that he is “inclined” to grant the relief sought by Moldova.
January 22, 2024
ICSID Rejects Latvian Snow Crab Investors’ Claims Against Norway

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Jan. 18 published an arbitral tribunal’s award dismissing all claims brought by Latvian investors in the snow crab industry against the Kingdom of Norway for allegedly harming their investment by banning them from fishing for Norwegian crab and ordered the investors to pay nearly $600,000 in arbitration costs and more than 800,000 euros to Norway in attorney fees.
January 19, 2024
$31M Fuel Delivery Dispute Dismissed After Haiti Pays Judgment In Full

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Jan. 18 entered an order of voluntary dismissal after an award-creditor the same day filed notice of the satisfaction of the court’s more than $31 million judgment enforcing a confirmed arbitral award against the Republic of Haiti (ROH) and one of its agencies for a fuel delivery dispute.
January 19, 2024
Tribunal Says Jurisdiction Not Mooted By Company’s 2nd Claim Against Mexico

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a tribunal’s decision rejecting the United Mexican States’ preliminary objection to the tribunal’s jurisdiction based on the fact that a Canadian mining investor launched a second ICSID claim against Mexico related to the same alleged mine expropriation, finding that the arbitrations concern different claims.
January 17, 2024
High Court Told ‘Chaos’ Will Ensue ‘In A World Without Chevron’ Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court was told Jan. 17 that “chaos” will ensue “in a world without Chevron” deference by government attorneys, who urged it to apply stare decisis and uphold Chevron, which is being challenged in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations.
January 17, 2024
Brazilian Energy Company Seeks To Confirm $62M Award In Solar Panel Dispute

NEW YORK — A Brazilian energy company on Jan. 16 filed a cross-petition in New York federal court to confirm an arbitral award worth more than $62 million it won in a breach of contract dispute against a Chinese solar panel manufacturer, arguing that the tribunal’s award was proper and there is no reason not to enforce it.
January 10, 2024
D.C. Circuit Asks United States To Weigh In On Intra-EU Arbitration Disputes

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel invited the United States to file an amicus curiae brief addressing waivers to sovereign immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) as it considers whether European investors can seek enforcement of arbitral awards collectively worth more than 358 million euros against the Kingdom of Spain despite European Union legal rulings barring intra-EU arbitration.
January 09, 2024
Award In Iraq War Dispute Violated Parties’ Contract, 4th Circuit Told

RICHMOND, Va. — A Kuwaiti company urges the Fourth Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an appellant brief to reverse a Virginia federal court’s confirmation of an arbitral award against it worth $8 million for a dispute with Kellogg Brown & Root International Inc. (KBR) over logistics contracts performed during the Iraq war, arguing that the court improperly rejected its arguments as untimely and then confirmed an arbitral award that it says breached the terms of the parties’ contract.
January 09, 2024
Judge Orders Saudi Heirs’ Lawyer To Pay $268,000 In Sanctions For Faking Article

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Jan. 8 entered judgment for more than $268,000 in attorney fees and interest against an attorney who filed a faked news article as an exhibit to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals while representing the heirs of Saudi Arabian sheikhs in a petition against U.S. oil companies to confirm a controversial arbitral award worth $18 billion.
January 09, 2024
Brazilian Mining Company Can’t Arbitrate Dam Burst Liability, English Judge Rules

LONDON — An English judge denied Brazil-based mining company Vale S.A.’s application to stay a third-party claim against it pending arbitration of its liability for claims brought by more than 730,000 parties seeking roughly 36 billion pounds for damages caused by the 2015 collapse of a dam in Brazil.
January 09, 2024
Business Seeks Reconsideration Of Arbitration Order In Saudi Contract Dispute

HARTFORD, Conn. — A company filed a motion urging a Connecticut federal judge to reconsider an order compelling arbitration of its contractual dispute with a Florida company over delivery of hazmat supplies to a Saudi Arabian entity, arguing that it was deceived during a lengthy email chain into unwittingly entering into an arbitration agreement before providing a $335,000 payment for which it says it received nothing in return.
January 08, 2024
High Court Won’t Review Casino Dispute Over Delegation Of Arbitrability

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 8 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) incorporated entity owned by a Hong Kong investor, which sought review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that a local regulator was not required to arbitrate a dispute over the petitioner’s license relating to a $3.14 billion casino and hotel investment.
January 08, 2024
High Court Declines To Review Alter Ego Finding For Venezuela, Oil Company

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 8 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), which sought to challenge the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that they are alter egos despite changes to the government’s leadership ahead of a planned auction of billions of dollars of oil shares to enforce arbitral awards against Venezuela.
January 05, 2024
New York Partners’ Dispute Over Chinese Asset Liquidation Remanded To State Court

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge remanded to state court a dispute between shareholders of a textiles company over performance of an arbitral award ordering an auction in China of their Chinese assets, holding that removal was improper as the dispute no longer relates to an international arbitration award but instead to state law claims for corporate dissolution.
January 03, 2024
Alternative Service Sought In Petition To Vacate $43.5M Dominican Landfill Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Dominican Republic (DR) filed an emergency motion for alternative service in District of Columbia federal court, where it is seeking to vacate an arbitral award against it for more than $43.5 million in favor of a Jamaican landfill investor, with DR arguing that it is “simply impossible” for it to serve the investor by Jan. 8 under regular service requirements.
January 02, 2024
Citing Fraud, English Court Sets Aside $11B Gas Supply Award Against Nigeria

LONDON — An English judge set aside an arbitral award worth more than $11 billion against the Federal Republic of Nigeria and denied leave to appeal to an Irish-owned company that the court in a previous ruling said had won the award through “abuses of the arbitral process,” including fraud and bribery, after commencing arbitration over a thwarted gas supply contract entered into in 2010.
January 02, 2024
Panel Finds No Jurisdiction Over Award-Creditor’s Request For Security

LONDON — A three-justice panel of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales rejected a Liechtenstein company and its owner’s request for permission to appeal a lower court’s ruling denying their application for an order requiring the Czech Republic to post security while it challenges an arbitral award against it worth about 140 million British pounds, finding that it lacked jurisdiction over the request.
December 20, 2023
Arbitrators’ Nondisclosures Should Have Sunk Panama Canal Award, High Court Told

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of construction firms filed a petition for a writ of certiorari urging the U.S. Supreme Court to address a “three-way” circuit split over the high court’s precedent for standards of impartiality applicable to arbitrators, writing that this standard was improperly applied in a ruling affirming a $283 million award against them for a dispute over construction projects on the Panama Canal.
December 18, 2023
Judge Finds Sale Of Homes Linked To Grindr Chairman Unrelated To Arbitration

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge on Dec. 15 rejected several real estate holding companies’ argument for federal jurisdiction over breach of contract claims against them for allegedly breaching a settlement to repay a $30 million loan by attempting to sell 27 Indiana homes, finding that the causes of action are unrelated to a Singaporean arbitration between the lender and the chairman of the Grindr dating app.
December 18, 2023
Equatorial Guinea Appeals Confirmation Of $13M Award For Clinic Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 15 docketed the Republic of Equatorial Guinea’s (EG) appeal challenging the confirmation of an arbitral award against it worth more than $13 million for abruptly terminating a Swiss company’s contract to manage a hospital in the country.
December 04, 2023
COMMENTARY: Public Policy Challenges To Arbitration Awards In The United Arab Emirates

By Moamen Elwan and Nils de Wolff
December 15, 2023
Presiding Arbitrator Dissents From Production Order In ICSID Claim Against Qatar

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a split tribunal’s order on document production issued in a French-Algerian investor’s pending claim against the state of Qatar, with the presiding arbitrator dissenting from the denial of the claimant’s requests for business records he says were seized from him when he was detained by Qatar for six months.
December 15, 2023
Judge Denies Venezuela’s Request To Certify Appeal Of Attachment Orders Worth $8B

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge on Dec. 14 after a hearing denied a request by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) to certify for interlocutory appeal his order granting writs of attachment to arbitral award-creditors and bondholders seeking to enforce judgments that Venezuela says are collectively worth more than $8 billion.