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

Mealey's International Arbitration

February 23, 2024
Mexican Filmmaker’s Estate Urges 9th Circuit To Reject Son’s Appeal Of $8.7M Award

SAN FRANCISCO — A Mexican film producer’s estate, companies and children say in an appellee brief to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the court should disregard arguments raised by the producer’s son and his companies challenging an $8.7 million arbitral award against them, writing that the trial court correctly found that they untimely challenged the tribunal’s jurisdiction based on allegedly forged evidence.
February 23, 2024
Judge Stays Petition After Ecuador, Texas Refinery Settle $6M Award Row

HOUSTON — A Texas federal judge on Feb. 22 granted a joint motion to stay after a Texas company and the Republic of Ecuador filed a joint motion stating that they have reached a settlement resolving Ecuador’s petition to confirm a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal’s award against the Texas company for more than $6 million in attorney fees awarded after a contract dispute and are now preparing to “effectuate the settlement.”
February 22, 2024
Company Seeks To Enforce Award Worth More Than 5.1M Euros Against Niger

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Luxembourg investor filed a petition in District of Columbia federal court seeking to enforce an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award of more than 5.1 million euros and $387,000 issued more than 10 years ago against the Republic of Niger for harming its investment in operating a Nigerien airport.
February 22, 2024
10th Circuit Rejects Liberian Company’s Alter Ego Claim To Enforce Maritime Award

DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 21 affirmed a district court’s rejection of claims by a Liberian tanker-owner for alter ego liability against the only member of a shipping company that has not yet paid an arbitral award worth more than $2 million for a dispute over its failure in 2012 to ship oil from Venezuela.
February 21, 2024
ICSID Publishes $5M Award Against Turkey For Canceling Uranium Mining Licenses

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a mixed award issued in a since-settled dispute brought by an American mining company against the Republic of Türkiye, in which the tribunal found that Turkey breached a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) by canceling the company’s licenses but rejected the company’s claims for $30.5 million in damages because its mining project would never have become profitable.
February 21, 2024
Panama Canal Operator Urges High Court To Reject Arbitrator Partiality Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republic of Panama-owned instrumentality that operates the Panama Canal in a Feb. 20 brief urges the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by construction firms that say a $283 million award against them was tainted by the arbitrators’ nondisclosures of various professional ties, writing that any circuit split over the issue is “academic.”
February 20, 2024
Investors’ $1.4B Euro ICSID Claim Ended After German Court Bars Intra-EU Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two coal investors, one German and one Dutch, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands discontinued an arbitration brought by the investors for 1.4 billion euros in damages based on a ban of coal-powered energy plants after the highest court in Germany declared the investors’ arbitration claims impermissible under European Union law, an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal found in an order taking note of the arbitration’s discontinuance.
February 20, 2024
9th Circuit Urged Not To Stay Mandate Pending Petition For Cert In $1.3B Award Row

SAN FRANCISCO — An Indian state-owned company filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opposing a motion by intervenors to stay the issuance of a mandate reversing the confirmation of an arbitral award worth more than $1.3 billion against it while the intervenors seek review before the U.S. Supreme Court, writing that the high court is unlikely to grant certiorari on the issue of the Ninth Circuit’s precedent requiring minimum contacts analysis under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).
February 20, 2024
Slovak Republic Tells ICSID U.S. Driller Broke Local Law, Harmed Own Investment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 19 published the Slovak Republic’s rejoinder to a U.S. oil company’s arguments accusing Slovakia of causing its investment more than $568.2 million in damages, in which the nation asserts that the company caused its own misfortunes, not government regulatory agencies.
February 20, 2024
Canada Asks ICSID Tribunal To Bifurcate Natural Gas Investor’s $1B NAFTA Claim

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has published Canada’s request for bifurcation and a U.S. liquid natural gas (LNG) investor’s memorial on jurisdiction and the merits in support of its claim that the government of Canada breached the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and caused it more than $1 billion in damages by rejecting its proposal to construct a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Québec.
February 13, 2024
Judge Says Zimbabwe Is Alter Ego Of State Mining Company In $50M Award Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge denied a motion to dismiss two Mauritian mining investors’ amended complaint seeking to enforce a judgment recognizing an arbitral award worth more than $50 million against the Republic of Zimbabwe and its state-owned mining company after finding that the two are alter egos.
February 13, 2024
3rd Circuit Affirms Refusal To Compel Arbitration Of Coal Contract Dispute

PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a federal judge’s refusal to lift a preliminary injunction and compel arbitration as was sought by a group of Indian and Singaporean entities who claimed to have entered into a contract with a Pennsylvania coal company, finding that the parties were not shown to have entered into a binding arbitration agreement.
February 08, 2024
High Court Urged Not To Review Alleged Arbitrator Bias In Oil Award Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An oil investor owned by a Chinese company urges the U.S. Supreme Court in an opposition brief not to grant a U.S. oil company’s petition for a writ of certiorari challenging the affirmance of an award against it worth more than $392 million in relation to a $1 billion Ecuadorian oil dispute between the parties, denying that there is a circuit split over how to evaluate arbitrator bias claims.
February 08, 2024
Split En Banc 9th Circuit Won’t Review Jurisdiction In $1.3B Indian Award Row

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 6 by majority denied a petition for rehearing en banc of a panel’s ruling reversing the confirmation of an arbitral award worth more than $1.3 billion against an Indian state-owned company, which the panel also refused to rehear, while several judges joined in a dissent stating that the court should correct its precedent on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).
February 07, 2024
2nd Circuit Affirms Award Ordering Sale Of Latin American Telecommunications Company

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 6 issued a summary order affirming an International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) award ordering the sale of a Latin American company that builds and maintains telecommunications infrastructure, rejecting the majority shareholders’ arguments that the arbitrators manifestly disregarded the law.
February 07, 2024
Mexican Company Was Properly Served In $536,000 Film Dispute Case, 9th Circuit Says

SAN FRANCISCO — Addressing question of first impression regarding requirements for service of nonresidents under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a Mexican company was properly served and affirmed the confirmation of an arbitral award against it worth more than $536,000 in damages, attorney fees and costs for a film distribution dispute but based on different reasoning than the district court.
February 05, 2024
U.S. Largely Sides With Spain On Intra-EU Arbitration In Brief To D.C. Circuit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Without weighing in on the merits of three pending appeals, the United States in a Feb. 2 amicus curiae brief to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals echoed several arguments the Kingdom of Spain has made challenging a district court’s jurisdiction over petitions to confirm arbitral awards against it worth more than 358 million euros, calling the court’s anti-suit injunctions against Spain “a significant affront to a foreign state in contravention of principles of international comity.”
January 31, 2024
D.C. Circuit Confirms Award In Iraqi Port Construction Dispute Worth Nearly $120M

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Jan. 30 confirmed an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitral award worth nearly $120 million in favor of a Cypriot construction company against the Republic of Iraq and two government entities after the Iraqi entities failed to respond to the suit, finding no reason not to confirm the award.
January 31, 2024
Bermuda Entities Spar In 2nd Circuit Over Bid To Revive Arbitrator Bias Row

NEW YORK — Arguing in part that “[s]ubject matter jurisdiction could not be clearer,” a Bermuda-based reinsurer urged the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reject a bid to revive a case involving an arbitrator and two reinsurance contracts with a Bermuda-based insurer.
January 30, 2024
5th Circuit Finds No Jurisdiction Over $200M Award For Fatal Explosion On Vessel

NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 29 reversed and remanded a federal judge’s ruling denying a Swiss charterer’s motion to dismiss a German shipowner’s petition to enforce an arbitral award worth more than $200 million for damages incurred when a fatal explosion occurred on the vessel, finding that the court lacked personal jurisdiction.
January 29, 2024
Spain’s Challenge To ICSID Award Stayed In England Pending Related Appeal

LONDON — An English justice delaying ruling on Spain’s application to set aside the High Court of Justice’s registration of an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award against it worth more than 33 million euros pending an appeal on the related issue of whether Spain is bound to an arbitration agreement with a citizen of a European Union state despite EU law prohibiting intra-EU arbitrations.
January 29, 2024
Texas Refinery Manager Gets More Time To Respond To Ecuador In $6M Award Row

HOUSTON — A Texas federal judge granted a Texas company an extension of time to respond to the Republic of Ecuador’s petition to confirm a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal’s award against it for more than $6 million in attorney fees, which the company was ordered to pay after the tribunal rejected its claims that Ecuador harmed the company’s investment in Ecuador by allegedly interfering with its contracts to manage Ecuadorian refineries.
January 26, 2024
Energy Investor Seeks To Enforce Nearly $129M Award Against Ghana

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Ghana-based subsidiary of a Singaporean company filed a petition in District of Columbia federal court seeking to enforce a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal’s award worth nearly $129 million against The Government of the Republic of Ghana for terminating the company’s gas turbine contract.
January 25, 2024
Split Tribunal Rejects Hydro Investor’s $47M Claims Against Peru

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal rejected a U.S. hydropower investor and its subsidiary’s claims for more than $47 million in damages against the Republic of Peru for harming its investment but ordered Peru to return a $5 million performance bond.
January 25, 2024
ICSID Tribunal Dismisses U.S. Objections In Ukrainian Money Laundering Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Jan. 25 published its decision dismissing the United States’ preliminary objections to an arbitration claim brought against it by three Ukrainian-owned entities that are seeking to challenge the civil seizure of their real estate investments for involvement in an alleged money laundering scheme.