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

Mealey's International Arbitration

November 08, 2022
Reinsurer Urges Judge To Reconsider Enforcement Of $33M Awards Against Argentina

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A reinsurer in a new motion urges a District of Columbia federal judge to reconsider evidence it says was not fully considered before dismissal of its petition to enforce two arbitral awards worth $33 million against the Republic of Argentina, arguing that the evidence shows that Argentina is not only successor-in-interest but also an alter ego to a state-owned company that incurred debts in the underlying dispute.
November 07, 2022
No-Show Virginia Company Must Pay $538K Award To Spanish Manufacturer, Judge Rules

RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal judge confirmed an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal’s award, granted a motion for default judgment filed by a Spanish manufacturer of high-pressure food processing machines and ordered a Virginia company to pay more than $538,000 for breaching a sales contract by failing to pay for the installation and delivery machines.
November 04, 2022
NAFTA Investor Opposing $2M Award Says Tribunal Ignored Expert Evidence

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A telecommunications investor says an Iowa federal court should refuse to enforce a more than $2 million award issued against him by an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal that rejected his claims for North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) violations against the United Mexican States, claiming that the arbitrators ignored his expert witnesses’ evidence.
November 01, 2022
Saudi Heirs’ Lawyer Faked Article In $18B Award Fight, Special Master Says

SAN FRANCISCO — A special master recommended that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sanction an attorney for the heirs of Saudi Arabian sheikhs for submitting a falsified news article as evidence in support of his attempts to enforce a controversial $18 billion arbitral award against American oil companies by ordering him to pay the companies attorney fees and referring him for disciplinary proceedings.
November 01, 2022
High Court Urged To Review Russian’s RICO Claim In $92M Award Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Russian award-debtor residing in California and a Monaco bank separately filed petitions for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to resolve a circuit split over whether foreign plaintiffs can bring Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims for harm to “intangible property,” after the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals allowed RICO claims against them for conspiring to evade enforcement of a $92 million award.
October 27, 2022
Company Urges 2nd Circuit To Affirm $27M Award Against Libya For Factory Dispute

NEW YORK — A Cypriot company in an Oct. 26 appellee brief urges the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm the confirmation of an award worth more than $27 million against Libya for attempting to expropriate land on which the company had built a factory, arguing that the tribunal properly found jurisdiction over the arbitration despite the company’s litigation of the same claims in Libyan courts.
October 24, 2022
Judge Stays Russian-Linked Company’s Bid To Confirm Award Pending Swiss Appeal

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge stayed a petition to confirm a $7.5 million award in a pig iron sales dispute filed by an Illinois-based company that is owned by the daughter of a Russian industrialist, rejecting arguments by the Swiss award-debtor that enforcing the award would violate U.S. foreign policy but staying litigation pending the debtor’s appeal in Switzerland to increase a nearly $2.5 million award in its favor.
October 24, 2022
Israeli Energy Company Found In Default In Guatemala’s Bid To Confirm $1.8M Award

NEW YORK — A New York federal court clerk filed a certificate of default against an Israeli energy company that was previously ordered by an arbitral tribunal to pay the Republic of Guatemala a $1.8 million award for arbitration costs and legal fees after it failed to respond to multiple service attempts.
October 24, 2022
Split ICSID Tribunal Finds Spain Breached ECT By Ending Solar Benefits

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal found the Kingdom of Spain liable for harming the renewable energy investments of 73 German entities by altering its legislative subsidies for photovoltaic (PV) facilities, but withheld a final decision on damages.
October 21, 2022
$2.4B Award-Creditors Ask Court To Enter Default Against Iranian Gas Company

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two gas companies on Oct. 20 filed a request for entry of default in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s state-owned oil company, saying it has failed to appear more than five months after the companies filed a petition to enforce an arbitral award worth more than $2.4 billion for failure to deliver raw gas.
October 14, 2022
Can You Still Enforce Awards In Germany That Have Been Set Aside?

By Victor Gontard
October 21, 2022
ICSID Tribunal Agrees To Seal Seismic Data In $2.5B Claim Against Canada

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a confidentiality order, an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal hearing claims brought against Canada by three investors and their geological survey company for more than $2.5 billion in damages agreed to keep confidential during the proceeding all references to the investors’ allegedly protected seismic data for use in oil exploration, which they contend was publicized by Canada, destroying their business.
October 21, 2022
ICSID Tribunal Rejects Mexico’s Post Facto Request To Seal Supporting Documents

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal in an order published Oct. 20 refused the United Mexican States’ request that it alter a previous order on confidentiality to seal supporting documents that had already been published in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) dispute with oil investors, who claim that Mexico caused them $200 million in damages.
October 21, 2022
Gas Well Investor Says Tribunal Exceeded Powers By Slashing $4M From $10.5M Award

HOUSTON — A U.S. company moved in a Texas federal court to partially confirm and partially vacate an arbitral award issued in its dispute with a British Virgin Islands (BVI) entity over profits from gas wells in the Republic of Cameroon, arguing that the tribunal correctly awarded it $10.5 million under the parties’ agreement but erred by later granting the BVI entity’s request to issue an addendum reducing the award by more than $4 million.
October 21, 2022
U.S., Luxembourg Companies Settle Dispute Over Nearly $1.4B Award’s Enforcement

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted a joint motion to stay litigation between a U.S. company seeking to enforce a nearly $1.4 billion arbitral award against the Luxembourg-based parent company and alleged alter ego of a Mauritian award-debtor after the parties informed the court they have reached a confidential settlement agreement in principle.
October 20, 2022
Japanese Company Moves To Attach $23M Award-Debtor’s Assets In Video Game Dispute

NEW YORK — A Japanese company filed an ex parte application for an order of attachment freezing the assets of a U.S. company and its CEO and requiring them to post a $10,000 bond pending the confirmation of an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) award against them worth more than $23 million for selling an unlicensed video game after the Japanese company terminated their license.
October 18, 2022
Split ICSID Committee Won’t Annul 7M Euro Award Against Madagascar

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ad hoc committee declined the Republic of Madagascar’s application to annul an award against it worth more than 7 million euros for intervening in factory investors’ litigation against their insurer, rejecting its contention that the tribunal failed to address its argument that the claims were precluded by the investors’ prior arbitration against the state before other arbitrators.
October 18, 2022
Korean University’s Contract Claims Over IP Suit Dismissed In Favor Of Arbitration

MILWAUKEE — Two of the three contracts defining the relationship between a Korean university and various companies regarding the university’s intellectual property had valid arbitration agreements, and the third triggered common-law forum non conveniens factors, a Wisconsin federal magistrate judge found in dismissing the university’s breach of contract claims brought after one of the companies failed to notify the university that award money from litigation regarding one of its technology patents, funded by a separate company, was placed in a Wisconsin bank account at the order of an arbitrator.
October 18, 2022
$8.7M Award In Mexican Film Rights Dispute Based On Fraud, Court Told

LOS ANGELES — The son of a Mexican film producer and his companies moved in California federal court to vacate a more than $8.7 million arbitral award in favor of the father’s estate, his companies and other children, arguing that the award and finding of jurisdiction were based on fraudulent evidence.
October 17, 2022
High Court Won’t Hear Jurisdictional Challenge To Singaporean Tribunal’s Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 17 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari brought by a real estate seller challenging the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of a district court’s finding of personal jurisdiction to confirm a $1.5 million arbitral award for a Philippine Island sale dispute, which he said was invalid because he moved abroad.
October 13, 2022
ICSID To Hear New Claim For Quarry Shutdown In NAFTA Dispute With Mexico

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal set the schedule for hearing a U.S. investor’s new, ancillary claim regarding the recent shutdown of its Mexican subsidiary’s last remaining quarry after a split tribunal allowed it to add the claim to a pending North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) arbitration against the United Mexican States.
October 11, 2022
Swiss Entities Move To Attach Venezuela’s Delaware Assets To Enforce Award

NEW YORK — Two Swiss entities filed a motion in Delaware federal court seeking a writ of fieri facias permitting them to attach the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela’s assets held by a Delaware holding company to enforce a confirmed arbitral award worth more than $387 million for Venezuela’s expropriation of their investments in a Venezuelan fertilizer company.
October 06, 2022
11th Circuit Grants En Banc Review Of $7M Award After Panel Questioned Precedent

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 5 granted en banc review of a panel’s ruling affirming the denial of a Guatemalan contractor’s petition to vacate an arbitral award worth more than $7 million for a canceled hydroelectric dam project and vacated the ruling of the merits panel, which argued that en banc review is needed because the original panel was “powerless to change the course” of circuit precedent that is “out of line with Supreme Court precedent.”
October 05, 2022
Financier Wins Confirmation Of $8.9M Award For Movie’s Delayed Delivery

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge confirmed an Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA) international arbitral tribunal’s damages award of nearly $8.9 million against the Danish and German guarantors of the 2018 horror film “Isabelle” for the film’s late completion and delivery, which the arbitrator treated as nondelivery under the parties’ contract.
October 04, 2022
2nd Circuit Affirms $12.6M Award Against Venezuelan Company Despite No Summons

NEW YORK — Addressing a question of first impression, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 3 found that a British Virgin Islands (BVI) company was not required to serve a summons to a Venezuelan iron ore producer to win the confirmation of a $12.6 million award for a contract dispute, but reversed the trial court’s award of attorney fees and costs to the BVI company.