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

Mealey's International Arbitration

October 03, 2022
High Court Denies Ukraine’s Petition For Cert Over Forum Non Conveniens Defense

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 3 denied Ukraine’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a purported circuit conflict over the availability of forum non conveniens defenses in foreign arbitration cases, in which it claimed that the confirmation of an arbitral award worth more than $173 million against it should been litigated in Ukrainian courts and that the Russian award-creditor was using U.S. discovery “to trawl for information about . . . Ukraine’s national security.”
October 03, 2022
High Court Denies $44M Award-Creditor’s Petition In Hague Service Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 3 denied a French materials manufacturer’s petition for a writ of certiorari claiming that the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly reversed the confirmation of a $44 million arbitral award in its favor for failure to properly serve the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela under the Hague Service Convention, which the French company claimed Venezuela breached by refusing to accept the service.
September 29, 2022
High Court Distributes Jurisdictional Challenge To Singaporean Tribunal’s Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 28 distributed 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 says is invalid because he moved abroad.
September 28, 2022
Chairman Won’t Disqualify Arbitrators From Venezuela’s Bid To Annul $8.5B Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The chairman of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Administrative Council on Sept. 27 rejected the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela’s proposal to disqualify two arbitrators from the committee hearing its application to annul an award for expropriating offshore oil projects based on their exposure to the “deplorable conduct” of the third arbitrator who recently resigned from the proceeding.
September 14, 2022
COMMENTARY: Can You Still Enforce Awards In The UK That Have Been Set Aside?

By Robin Bandar
September 26, 2022
Mexico Says Investor Must Pay $2 Million Costs Award For Rejected Arbitral Claims

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The United Mexican States on Sept. 23 filed a petition in Iowa federal court to confirm an arbitral award worth more than $2 million plus interest in legal and arbitration costs against a U.S. investor whose claims against Mexico for violating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by expropriating his telecommunications investment were rejected.
September 23, 2022
Judge Stays Dispute Over $65M Award Pending English Challenge To 65% Interest Rate

OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal judge on Sept. 22 stayed a dispute over enforcement of two London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) awards in favor of a litigation funder pending a challenge to the awards in an English court, which recently found that the tribunal may have committed a “substantial injustice” by awarding 65% interest on top of $6 million in compensatory damages.
September 20, 2022
Foreign Suits Don’t Bar Venue In N.Y. To Enforce $1.3B Award Against ‘Alter Ego’

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Sept. 19 declined to dismiss or stay a U.S. company’s action to enforce a more than $1.3 billion arbitral award against the Belgian parent company and alleged alter ego of the award-debtor by garnishing its notes, with the judge citing the parent’s “strategy of evasion” in rejecting its forum non conveniens defense based on parallel litigation in two other nations between the parties.
September 19, 2022
Nigeria Wins Discovery For English Fraud Challenge To $10B Gas Supply Award

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Sept. 14 granted The Federal Republic of Nigeria’s application to subpoena financial records from entities and individuals involved in the acquisition of an engineering firm for use in Nigeria’s pending action in English courts to set aside an arbitral award worth more than $10 billion against it, which Nigeria contends should be set aside as fraudulent.
September 19, 2022
Reinsurer Can’t Enforce $33M Awards Against Argentina, Judge Rules

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Aug. 23 granted the Republic of Argentina’s motion to dismiss a petition to enforce two arbitral awards against it as successor-in-interest to a state-owned company that incurred debts to a reinsurer, ruling that a 2018 judgment entered against Argentina is “null and void” because it did not impliedly waive its sovereign immunity from suit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).
September 16, 2022
Mining Companies Ask ICSID To Annul Award Denying Claims Against Guinea

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of mining entities controlled by an Israeli billionaire on Aug. 23 applied to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) to annul a tribunal’s award denying their claims for expropriation against the Republic of Guinea, based in part on evidence that they bribed the Guinean president’s wife to obtain a disputed mining license.
September 14, 2022
1st Circuit Finds $5.5M Award For Defects In London Dorm Properly Confirmed

BOSTON — A First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 13 affirmed the confirmation of a nearly $5.5 million award against a seller and its contractor for construction defects found in a London dormitory after its sale for more than $58 million to a university, finding the award timely confirmed although it was issued more than three years prior because the arbitration was not completed until years later.
September 14, 2022
Judge: COVID Mask Seller Waived Arbitration Of $2.5M Dispute With Chinese Company

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on Sept. 9 granted a Chinese company’s motion for summary judgment against an import/export company accused of failing to deliver masks and other protective gear early in the coronavirus pandemic after receiving payment of $2.5 million, rejecting its argument for arbitration of the dispute, which the judge said it waived by implication.
September 13, 2022
ICSID Grants Azerbaijani Investor Provisional Measure For Duration Of Arbitration

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal in a redacted June 14 decision published Aug. 19 granted an Azerbaijani telecommunications investor a provisional measure preventing Georgia from revoking his company’s license to operate, finding that the protection was urgently required to preserve a right sufficiently tied to claims he made in the request for arbitration but refused to restrict the powers of the special manager appointed to the company.
September 13, 2022
ICISD Arbitrator Avoids Disqualification For Working With Argentina’s Expert

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal majority on Sept. 11 declined to disqualify a third arbitrator, who was accused of bias in favor of the Argentine Republic by the Spanish claimant, with the two arbitrators finding that their colleague’s service as co-arbitrator with one of Argentina’s expert witnesses in an unrelated case was not evidence of bias.
September 12, 2022
Ukrainian Oil Company Brings Arbitral Claim Against Russia’s Gazprom

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s national gas company, National Joint Stock Company Naftogaz, on Sept. 9 announced that it has commenced international arbitration proceedings against PJSC Gazprom, a Russian gas company, for allegedly insufficient and untimely payments on gas transported through Ukraine.
September 09, 2022
ICSID Urges Netherlands To ‘Reconsider’ German Suit To Block Coal Arbitration

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal in a decision published Sept. 8 recommended that the Kingdom of the Netherlands reconsider an action in German courts to have two coal power investors’ arbitral claims against it declared inadmissible under European Union law, while also denying the investors’ request that it order the Netherlands to drop the case.
September 08, 2022
Judge Confirms $8.5B Award Against Venezuela Despite Pending Annulment Application

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Aug. 19 granted three Dutch companies’ motion for default judgment and confirmed an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award worth more than $8.5 billion against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for expropriation of offshore oil project investments, despite Venezuela pursuing annulment of the award before ICSID.
September 08, 2022
Judge Won’t Dismiss Bid To Enforce $200M Award For Fatal Explosion On Vessel

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge on Sept. 7 denied a Swiss charterer’s motion to dismiss a German shipowner’s petition to enforce an arbitral award worth more than $200 million against the Swiss company, which had chartered a vessel that was involved in a fatal explosion while crossing the Atlantic Ocean, after rejecting the charterer’s jurisdictional defense.
September 07, 2022
Award-Creditors Must Cure Errors In Service To Zimbabwe, Judge Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Sept. 6 granted Zimbabwe’s motion to dismiss two petitions, filed separately by a group of plantation owners and the plantation companies themselves who are seeking to confirm arbitral awards worth more than $263 million, but granted the petitioners 60 days to “re-serve” Zimbabwe in compliance with the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).
September 06, 2022
Magistrate Recommends $8.6M Sanctions Judgment Against Kyrgyzstan For Unpaid Award

NEW YORK — A New York federal magistrate judge on Aug. 31 recommended that the court enter judgment on accumulated sanctions against the Kyrgyz Republic in the amount of $8,560,000, on top of a 2020 sanctions judgment for $2,265,000, citing “its long-standing defiance” of an arbitral award confirmed against it in 2016 for more than $11.6 million in favor of a Turkish investor whose hotel was expropriated.
September 02, 2022
French Company Urges High Court To Disregard Venezuela’s ‘Fatal Flaw’ Argument

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A French plastics manufacturer in an Aug. 31 reply brief in support of its petition for a writ of certiorari again urges the U.S. Supreme Court to review the reversal of an arbitral award in its favor worth more than $44 million for improper service and denies the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela’s argument that its petition “mischaracterizes” the case as involving a default judgment.
September 01, 2022
Laos Drops Bid To Enforce Awards Worth $3.7M For Casino Dispute In Idaho

POCATELLO, Idaho — The Lao People’s Democratic Republic on Aug. 30 filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in an Idaho federal court of its suit seeking to confirm an arbitral award for a gambling investment dispute worth more than $3.7 million against a businessman and entities he purportedly controls, one day after a judge granted a motion to dismiss its third amended complaint for lack of jurisdiction.
September 01, 2022
Russian Entity Urges High Court To Deny Ukraine’s Petition Over Forum Split

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Russian entity that won the confirmation of an arbitral award worth more than $173 million against Ukraine urges the U.S. Supreme Court in an Aug. 25 brief to deny Ukraine’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a purported circuit conflict over the availability of forum non conveniens defenses in foreign arbitration cases, arguing that any difference between circuits is “immaterial” and not worthy of high court review.
August 31, 2022
9th Circuit Won’t Rehear Orrick’s Appeal Of Partners’ Summons To Arbitration

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 29 denied Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and two of its partners’ petition for panel rehearing of its recent ruling reversing a district court and permitting Jones Day to compel two Orrick partners to comply with a summons to appear at an international arbitration hearing regarding an employment dispute.