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

Mealey's International Arbitration

May 25, 2023
English Justice Refuses To Set Aside Registration Of Award Against Spain

LONDON — An English justice on May 24 refused to set aside the registration of an arbitral award worth 120 million euros against the Kingdom of Spain for harming two renewable energy investors’ investments, rejecting Spain’s sovereign immunity defense based on recent European Union judicial precedent prohibiting intra-EU arbitration and writing that the award must be enforced based on English legislation and stare decisis.
May 25, 2023
Share Transfer Doesn’t Moot Djibouti Company’s Arbitration Agreement, Judge Says

LONDON — An English judge denied a Djibouti state-owned port company’s application to set aside an arbitrator’s finding that it is still bound by a joint venture agreement with its Dubai-based former partner, writing that the applicant’s transfer of its ownership in the joint venture to the state does not moot the enforceability of the underlying arbitration agreement.
May 24, 2023
U.S. Company Seeks $57.46M From Dominican Republic In ICSID Contract Breach Claim

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a U.S. asphalt company’s memorial on the merits of its claim that the Dominican Republic breached investment treaty obligations by terminating a contract with the company for delivery of millions of gallons of asphalt, writing that the government abruptly stopped payment in 2020 after a new administration came into power.
May 23, 2023
ICSID Ends Mining Companies’ Bid To Annul Denial Of Claims Against Guinea

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has discontinued proceedings on an annulment application filed by a group of mining entities controlled by an Israeli billionaire that sought to challenge an award denying their claims for expropriation of a mining license against the Republic of Guinea but that failed to pay ICSID mandatory advance fees.
May 15, 2023
COMMENTARY: Blasket v Spain: Troubling New Questions On A State’s Capacity To Enter Into Arbitration Agreements

By David Roney, Tanya Landon and Michail Dekastros
May 22, 2023
1st Circuit Says Puerto Rico Law Doesn’t Trump Foreign Arbitration Clause

BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 19 addressed a question of first impression in ruling that a Puerto Rican recycling company’s claims against its foreign insurer must be arbitrated pursuant to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention).
May 22, 2023
High Court Denies Cert In Brazilian Oil Company’s Arbitrability Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 22 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a Brazilian oil company and its U.S. subsidiary seeking review of the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling that their parties’ global settlement agreement with several former joint venture partners superseded a preexisting contract containing an arbitration agreement.
May 22, 2023
Tribunal Rejects Mexican Investors’ 647M Euro Claim Over Spanish Bank’s Collapse

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A group of Mexican share- and bondholders in Spain’s Banco Popular were defeated in their claims against the Kingdom of Spain for allegedly failing to prevent the bank’s collapse and the loss of their investments’ value, with a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal ordering the claimants to pay Spain 7.9 million euros in attorney fees and arbitration costs.
May 19, 2023
3rd Circuit Denies Emergency Motion To Lift Stay On $2.7B Awards Against Venezuela

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an emergency motion by six award-creditors to reconsider the court’s temporary administrative stay on enforcement of judgments in their favor collectively worth more than $2.7 billion against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), as the creditors seek to join a planned auction of PDVSA’s assets in Delaware federal court.
May 18, 2023
ICSID Finds No Error In Tribunal’s 22M Euro Wind Energy Award Against Spain

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ad hoc committee rejected the Kingdom of Spain’s application to annul a more than 22 million euro arbitral award against it for breaching the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) by rescinding legislative incentives that a German renewable energy investor relied on and ordered Spain to pay more than $331,000 in costs and more than 310,000 euros to cover the investor’s attorney fees.
May 18, 2023
Judge Compels Arbitration Of Thai Company’s Claims In COVID Gloves Sales Dispute

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted a Los Angeles-based company’s owner’s motion to compel arbitration in Singapore of claims brought against him by a Thai nitrile gloves manufacturer for failure to pay $4.7 million for gloves the Thai company manufactured and delivered to his company during the COVID-19 pandemic.
May 16, 2023
Judge Rejects Venezuela’s Due Process Challenge To $440M ICSID Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on May 15 adopted in full a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and confirmed an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award worth more than $440 million against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in favor of two Spanish entities whose investments in Venezuelan food companies were expropriated, rejecting Venezuela’s argument that its due process rights were violated.
May 16, 2023
Amendment, Judgment Sought In Suit Over Coverage Of Sexual Abuse Case Settlements

SEATTLE —A foreign reinsurer on May 15 filed an opposition to an interlocal cooperative’s bid for leave to add allegations in a declaratory judgment case over reimbursement for defense and settlement of suits alleging sexual abuse; instead, the foreign reinsurer asks a Washington state federal court to render judgment on the pleadings.
May 16, 2023
2nd Circuit Affirms Spanish Insurer’s Maritime Award Against Nonsignatory

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the confirmation of an arbitral award worth more than 545,000 euros and 100,000 British pounds in favor of a Spanish insurer against a New York shipper, writing that while the shipper did not sign the underlying contract, it was still required to arbitrate under English law and was found liable by a London maritime tribunal.
May 16, 2023
ICSID Bifurcates Pipeline Owners’ $15B Claims Against U.S. For Canceled Permits

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a tribunal’s order granting the United States’ request for bifurcation of its objection that two Canadian pipeline companies can’t bring a claim against it for breaching the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) based on the termination of their license to operate a cross-border pipeline, which occurred after NAFTA expired.
May 10, 2023
Mauritian Award-Creditors In Indian Satellite Fight Were Seized, 9th Circuit Told

SAN FRANCISCO — Three Delaware-based companies moved to intervene in two appeals before the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on behalf of their subsidiaries, three Mauritian shareholders seeking to enforce a $1.3 billion judgment against an Indian state-owned company for an arbitral dispute, writing that the shareholders were judicially seized in Mauritius.
May 09, 2023
3rd Circuit Stays Enforcement Actions Worth $2.7B Against Venezuela

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ordered a temporary administrative stay of six enforcement actions pending in Delaware federal court, all brought by arbitral award-creditors against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), and expedited PDVSA’s appeal challenging the District Court’s ruling permitting the creditors to seek attachment of its assets at a planned auction.
May 09, 2023
Hydropower Investors Drop ICSID Claim Against Costa Rica

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal issued an order taking note of the discontinuance of an arbitral proceeding brought by Chilean and Costa Rican hydropower energy investors against the Republic of Costa Rica, weeks after the nation announced that it had entered into new electricity supply contracts with the investors.
May 08, 2023
Magistrate Judge Compels Discovery From Israeli Investor In $2.3M Award Row

NEW YORK — A New York federal magistrate judge on May 5 granted the Republic of Guatemala’s motion to compel discovery from an Israel energy investor against which default judgment was previously entered confirming a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) award for arbitration costs and attorney fees now worth more than $2.3 million, writing that sanctions could be issued if it fails to comply.
May 05, 2023
Company Tells 2nd Circuit Judge Erred By Quashing Discovery For ICSID Tribunal

NEW YORK — An Italian company in an appellant brief tells the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a judge misapplied recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent in quashing its subpoena seeking discovery for use before an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal, arguing that ICSID tribunals are “imbued” with “governmental authority.”
May 04, 2023
Judge Denies Contempt Motion Against Spain For European Litigation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge denied a renewable energy investor’s motion for contempt and sanctions against the Kingdom of Spain after it suspended, rather than formally withdrawing, its litigation in Luxembourg against the investor to halt its efforts to enforce an intra-EU arbitral award and likewise denied Spain’s motion to stay the litigation pending its appeal of the judge’s ruling finding jurisdiction over Spain.
May 04, 2023
Jurisdictional Questions Posed In 11th Circuit Appeal Of Arbitration Order

ATLANTA — Reinsurers and retrocessionaires are challenging a decision ordering arbitration in their litigation over an alleged $28 million in damages to an Algerian power plant, and the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has posed two questions, saying it might “lack jurisdiction over this appeal.”
May 02, 2023
Judge Rules On Choice Of Law In Google’s Arbitrability Dispute With Nonsignatories

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on May 1 ruled that the court will apply federal substantive law to deciding in the first instance whether two British Virgin Islands (BVI) nonsignatories are bound to arbitrate claims brought against their subsidiary by Google’s Asian division for more than $120 million in unpaid advertising invoices.
May 01, 2023
Special Master Recommends Launching Venezuela Auction, Citing U.S. Approval

WILMINGTON, Del. — The special master appointed to plan an auction of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela’s oil holdings to compensate arbitral award-creditors for billions in damages filed a supplemental report and recommendation on April 28 in Delaware federal court stating that the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has indicated that it intends a “favorable” policy toward creditors seeking licenses to begin buying Venezuela’s interests in CITGO Petroleum Corp. at auction despite current U.S. sanctions against Venezuela.