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

Mealey's International Arbitration

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).
August 28, 2023
Pipeline Owners Urge ICSID To Reject U.S. Objections To $15B Canceled Permit Claim

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Aug. 25 published two Canadian pipeline companies’ countermemorial to the United States’ preliminary objection challenging the tribunal’s jurisdiction on the basis that the companies can’t bring a claim for the termination of their license to operate a cross-border pipeline under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after NAFTA expired.
August 28, 2023
Entry Of Default Requested In $1.6B Award Row Against Iraqi Businessman, Company

PHILADELPHIA — A Kuwaiti-French joint venture filed a request for entry of default in Pennsylvania federal court where it is seeking to confirm an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) award worth more than $1.65 billion against a telecommunications company and an Iraqi businessman, writing that default should be entered for the award-debtors’ failure to defend.
August 28, 2023
Venezuela Tells D.C. Circuit It Wasn’t Heard In $440M Award Arbitration

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its foreign ministry urge the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an appellant brief to reverse the confirmation of an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award worth more than $440 million for expropriating two Spanish entities’ investments because the tribunal barred representatives of former interim president Juan Guaidó from the arbitration.
August 28, 2023
Split Tribunal Awards 14.5M Euros To Investor In Serbian Dairy Farm Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) split tribunal awarded a Canadian investor more than 14.5 million euros for the Republic of Serbia’s seizure of his shares in a dairy farm investment, but found no jurisdiction over several other Canadian and Cypriot investors who participated in the arbitration.
August 28, 2023
Venezuela Urges High Court To Review Alter Ego Liability Before Oil Shares Auction

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, urging it to review a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling affirming the denial of their sovereign immunity from a planned auction of their oil shares to enforce arbitral awards worth more than $2.7 billion.
August 28, 2023
Insurers Tell 5th Circuit $7M Hurricane Ida Dispute Belongs In Arbitration

NEW ORLEANS — A group of foreign and domestic insurers tells the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an appellee brief that it should affirm a Louisiana federal court’s ruling compelling arbitration of property owners’ claims for $7 million in damages caused by Hurricane Ida and for bad faith, writing that the arbitration is required under the insureds’ policies and the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the Convention).
August 25, 2023
Zimbabwe Appeals Judge’s Refusal To Dismiss $264M Awards To D.C. Circuit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republic of Zimbabwe filed notice in District of Columbia federal court that it is appealing a judge’s denial of its motions to dismiss two petitions seeking to confirm arbitral awards against it worth more than $264 million for the partial expropriation of Swiss and German nationals’ plantations, one filed by the plantation companies and one by the plantation owners.
August 25, 2023
Terminal Operator Urges D.C. Circuit To Affirm $541M Award Against Djibouti

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Djibouti-based joint venture argues in its appellee brief to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it should affirm a “straightforward” confirmation of two London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) arbitral awards worth more than $541 million in its favor against the Republic of Djibouti for a dispute over control of a container terminal.
August 24, 2023
2nd Circuit Refuses Rehearing Of $392M Award In Ecuadorian Oil Dispute

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a California oil company’s petition for rehearing of a panel’s ruling confirming an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award against it worth more than $392 million for withholding another oil company’s share of a $1 billion award against the Republic of Ecuador.
August 24, 2023
Judge Awards Spanish Company Attorney Fees After Confirming Award In Dog Meds Row

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina federal judge awarded a Spanish company nearly $150,000 in attorney fees after confirming an arbitral award in which it was ordered to pay a nominal amount of 5,000 euros to two U.S. companies for a dog medication intellectual property dispute but was still determined to be the prevailing party and awarded nearly $1 million worth of attorney fees and arbitration costs.
August 23, 2023
Award-Creditor Fails To Allege Basis For $7.1M Condo’s Seizure, Congo Says

NEW YORK — The Republic of the Congo moved to dismiss an arbitral award-creditor’s amended petition in New York federal court for turnover of a $7.1 million Trump Tower condo used by the Congo’s president’s daughter, arguing along with the condo’s owner that the award-creditor fails to properly allege the court’s jurisdiction over the petition.