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

Mealey's International Arbitration

May 23, 2025
Judge Defers Lima Motion To Vacate $198M Judgment Over Alleged Foley Hoag Conflict

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on May 22 deferred ruling on Lima, Peru’s motion to vacate a more than $198 million judgment against it based on new arguments that its former counsel, Foley Hoag LLP, was conflicted due to simultaneously representing a stakeholder in the adverse contractor without disclosing that fact to the city, citing a pending appeal in the case.
May 22, 2025
Judge Compels Arbitration Of Suit Against ‘Social’ Gambling Site Operator

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on May 21 granted a Cypriot gambling website operator’s motion to compel arbitration of claims brought against it by a man with a gambling addiction who alleges that the website is operated in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA).
May 22, 2025
Discovery Against Singaporean Company In Arbitral Row May Proceed, Judge Says

WILMINGTON, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge denied motions by a Singaporean biosciences company and an affiliated doctor to vacate subpoenas to aid a foreign legal action brought against the company by Novo Nordisk A/S in a dispute over alleged misrepresentations regarding the effectiveness of a hypertension drug, rejecting the bioscience company’s arguments that the subpoenas were a “pretext” to improperly obtain discovery for a pending international arbitration between the parties.
May 20, 2025
Magistrate Recommends Confirming $200K Award Against Baby Goods Seller

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal magistrate judge on May 19 recommended granting default judgment in favor of a Hong Kong company seeking to confirm a Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) award worth more than $200,000 against a California woman and her company, which sold retractable baby pacifier clips, for failure to make payments required under a contract for future receivables.
May 15, 2025
Tribunal Partly Bifurcates $303M Claim Against Mexico For Railway Contract

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on May 14 published a tribunal’s decision granting in part and denying in part the United Mexican States’ request to bifurcate a claim brought against it by an American investor for violating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by allegedly rescinding a railway concession agreement without compensation.
May 15, 2025
Tribunal Awards $152M In Damages, Attorney Fees For Argentina Road Contract

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal that previously found the Argentine Republic liable for breach of an infrastructure concession contract with a consortium including an Italian company issued its award on damages, attorney fees, costs and interest, in which it ordered Argentina to pay the company more than $152 million.
May 14, 2025
$4.6M Final Judgment Entered Against Debtors Who ‘Fled’ China To Avoid Award

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge entered a final judgment worth more than $4.6 million in favor of a Chinese lender and against four Chinese citizens currently residing in California who were found liable by the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA) as backers to a defaulted business loan, despite allegedly repaying the entire principal amount to the lender.
May 14, 2025
Venezuela Moves To Set Aside Default In $1B Oil Award Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela filed a motion in District of Columbia federal court to set aside a clerk’s default against it in a November 2023 lawsuit filed by three Exxon Mobil entities seeking to enforce an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award worth roughly $1 billion for the expropriation of their oil investments.
May 14, 2025
Panel Finds Rabbinical Tribunal’s Award Proper Under New York Convention

LOS ANGELES — A Second District California Court of Appeal Division 5 panel affirmed a state court ruling affirming a rabbinical arbitral tribunal’s award in favor of an American businessman and rejected arguments by an Israeli businessman and his business that the arbitration was improper under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.
May 13, 2025
2nd Circuit Affirms Award Terminating Sandwich Shop’s Russian Franchise

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 12 affirmed the confirmation of arbitral awards, holding that a franchisor that operated Subway sandwich shops in Russia cannot renew its franchise license issued by franchise operator Subway International B.V. (SIBV) and that the parties’ agreement was effectively terminated in 2020.
May 13, 2025
Judge Cites Estoppel, Won’t Vacate Arbitration Order In Hurricane Ida Dispute

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge on May 12 denied a motion to vacate a prior order sending a dispute over an insurance claim for damages from Hurricane Ida to arbitration despite new Louisiana Supreme Court precedent on the issue, citing federal equitable estoppel principles and the fact that the insureds allege that their domestic and foreign insurers engaged in “concerted and interdependent conduct.”
May 12, 2025
Shareholders To Intervene After Reed Smith Ordered To Share Docs In Shipping Row

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on May 9 granted a motion by the shareholders of two Liberian shipping companies to intervene in litigation over whether a JAMS arbitral award in their favor worth more than $102 million was procured by fraud, shortly after the court ordered the companies’ prior law firm, Reed Smith LLP, to turn over documents to the new counsel of the companies, which Reed Smith had argued is under new ownership and no longer adverse to the award-debtor.
May 09, 2025
2nd Circuit Abrogates Precedent On Reverse-Preemption In $12.5M Hurricane Ida Row

NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 8 abrogated its own precedent holding that an international convention regarding arbitration of foreign disputes is “not self-executing” and can be reverse-preempted by state law and reversed the denials of motions to compel arbitration of surplus line policy disputes for more than $12.5 million in damages caused to Louisiana properties by Hurricane Ida.
May 07, 2025
Judge Finds Ex-Claimants Jointly Liable To Nicaragua For $1.5M ICSID Award

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted a motion by the Republic of Nicaragua for partial summary judgment, opining that claimants who were ordered by a tribunal to pay Nicaragua $1.5 million in attorney fees and costs after their treaty-based claims against it were rejected are jointly and severally liable for paying that amount.
May 06, 2025
Spain Asks High Court To Resolve Circuit Splits In Intra-EU Arbitration Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Kingdom of Spain filed a petition for a writ of certiorari urging the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve two circuit splits as it opposes petitions to confirm arbitral awards against it worth 358 million euros issued in favor of investors residing in fellow EU member-states, arguing that the finding of jurisdiction over the petitions was based on mistaken rulings regarding arbitrability and forum non conveniens.
April 30, 2025
English Judge Says India Didn’t Waive Immunity In 195M Euro Award Dispute

LONDON — A judge of the High Court of England and Wales addressing a preliminary legal question in a case in which Mauritian investors seek to enforce a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) award worth more than 195 million euros against the Republic of India rejected the investors’ arguments that India waived its right to state immunity by entering the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention).
April 29, 2025
Tribunal Won’t Clarify Jurisdiction, Liability Findings Against Mexico

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on April 28 published a tribunal’s decision denying the United Mexican States’ request to clarify the tribunal’s previous decision finding jurisdiction over three Texas-based oil companies’ claims and finding Mexico liable for breaching the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by rescinding the companies’ oil drilling contract.
April 23, 2025
Sanctions Ordered For Noncompliance With Awards In Telecommunications Row

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on April 22 granted a motion for civil contempt sanctions against the majority shareholders of a Latin American telecommunications company for their ongoing failure to comply with five partial awards issued against them in an ongoing arbitration with the company’s minority shareholders.
April 23, 2025
Nigeria, Chinese Entity Dismiss Settled Dispute Over Arbitral Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge entered a minute order dismissing a lawsuit filed by a Chinese company seeking to confirm an arbitral award in its favor worth more than $70 million against the Federal Republic of Nigeria, following a settlement and Nigeria’s dismissal of its petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the finding that it waived its sovereign immunity from suit.
April 21, 2025
Irish Lender Wins Confirmation Of $215K Award Against Brazilian Grad Student

MIAMI — A Florida federal judge granted a motion for default judgment filed by two entities controlled by an Irish lender and entered judgment worth more than $215,000 reflecting two confirmed two Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) arbitral awards against a Brazilian man who was based in Florida and took out the loans to finance his postgraduate business studies.
April 21, 2025
Judge Declines To Reopen Hurricane Damage Dispute Pending Arbitrability Appeal

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge denied a state parish’s motion to reopen and reconsider a prior order compelling arbitration of the parish’s claims for unpaid hurricane damages against domestic and foreign insurers based on the Louisiana Supreme Court’s ruling on the impact of state law on insurance arbitration and said the parish may refile after the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issues a ruling on the issue.
March 27, 2025
COMMENTARY: Arbitration Act 2025: Practical Implications Arising From Changes To England’s Arbitration Act

By Tim Flamank and Michelle Glassman Bock
April 18, 2025
2nd Circuit Stays Order Displacing Liberian Companies’ Prior Counsel

NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel granted a law firm’s emergency motion to stay a lower court’s order granting a motion by two Liberian shipping companies to displace the firm as counsel and require it to turn over case files from proceedings to enforce a JAMS arbitral award, an order that the firm contends will provide confidential files to its client’s former adversary.
April 18, 2025
Court Finds Jurisdiction Over Russia In $218M Award Case For Crimean Expropriation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on April 17 denied the Russian Federation’s motion to dismiss a Ukrainian electricity company’s petition to confirm a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) award worth more than $218 million for an expropriation of its Crimean investments and denied Russia’s motion to stay litigation pending its Dutch appeal.