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

Mealey's International Arbitration

January 09, 2024
Award In Iraq War Dispute Violated Parties’ Contract, 4th Circuit Told

RICHMOND, Va. — A Kuwaiti company urges the Fourth Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an appellant brief to reverse a Virginia federal court’s confirmation of an arbitral award against it worth $8 million for a dispute with Kellogg Brown & Root International Inc. (KBR) over logistics contracts performed during the Iraq war, arguing that the court improperly rejected its arguments as untimely and then confirmed an arbitral award that it says breached the terms of the parties’ contract.
January 09, 2024
Judge Orders Saudi Heirs’ Lawyer To Pay $268,000 In Sanctions For Faking Article

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Jan. 8 entered judgment for more than $268,000 in attorney fees and interest against an attorney who filed a faked news article as an exhibit to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals while representing the heirs of Saudi Arabian sheikhs in a petition against U.S. oil companies to confirm a controversial arbitral award worth $18 billion.
January 09, 2024
Brazilian Mining Company Can’t Arbitrate Dam Burst Liability, English Judge Rules

LONDON — An English judge denied Brazil-based mining company Vale S.A.’s application to stay a third-party claim against it pending arbitration of its liability for claims brought by more than 730,000 parties seeking roughly 36 billion pounds for damages caused by the 2015 collapse of a dam in Brazil.
January 09, 2024
Business Seeks Reconsideration Of Arbitration Order In Saudi Contract Dispute

HARTFORD, Conn. — A company filed a motion urging a Connecticut federal judge to reconsider an order compelling arbitration of its contractual dispute with a Florida company over delivery of hazmat supplies to a Saudi Arabian entity, arguing that it was deceived during a lengthy email chain into unwittingly entering into an arbitration agreement before providing a $335,000 payment for which it says it received nothing in return.
January 08, 2024
High Court Won’t Review Casino Dispute Over Delegation Of Arbitrability

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 8 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) incorporated entity owned by a Hong Kong investor, which sought review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that a local regulator was not required to arbitrate a dispute over the petitioner’s license relating to a $3.14 billion casino and hotel investment.
January 08, 2024
High Court Declines To Review Alter Ego Finding For Venezuela, Oil Company

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 8 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), which sought to challenge the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that they are alter egos despite changes to the government’s leadership ahead of a planned auction of billions of dollars of oil shares to enforce arbitral awards against Venezuela.
January 05, 2024
New York Partners’ Dispute Over Chinese Asset Liquidation Remanded To State Court

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge remanded to state court a dispute between shareholders of a textiles company over performance of an arbitral award ordering an auction in China of their Chinese assets, holding that removal was improper as the dispute no longer relates to an international arbitration award but instead to state law claims for corporate dissolution.
January 03, 2024
Alternative Service Sought In Petition To Vacate $43.5M Dominican Landfill Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Dominican Republic (DR) filed an emergency motion for alternative service in District of Columbia federal court, where it is seeking to vacate an arbitral award against it for more than $43.5 million in favor of a Jamaican landfill investor, with DR arguing that it is “simply impossible” for it to serve the investor by Jan. 8 under regular service requirements.
January 02, 2024
Citing Fraud, English Court Sets Aside $11B Gas Supply Award Against Nigeria

LONDON — An English judge set aside an arbitral award worth more than $11 billion against the Federal Republic of Nigeria and denied leave to appeal to an Irish-owned company that the court in a previous ruling said had won the award through “abuses of the arbitral process,” including fraud and bribery, after commencing arbitration over a thwarted gas supply contract entered into in 2010.
January 02, 2024
Panel Finds No Jurisdiction Over Award-Creditor’s Request For Security

LONDON — A three-justice panel of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales rejected a Liechtenstein company and its owner’s request for permission to appeal a lower court’s ruling denying their application for an order requiring the Czech Republic to post security while it challenges an arbitral award against it worth about 140 million British pounds, finding that it lacked jurisdiction over the request.
December 20, 2023
Arbitrators’ Nondisclosures Should Have Sunk Panama Canal Award, High Court Told

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of construction firms filed a petition for a writ of certiorari urging the U.S. Supreme Court to address a “three-way” circuit split over the high court’s precedent for standards of impartiality applicable to arbitrators, writing that this standard was improperly applied in a ruling affirming a $283 million award against them for a dispute over construction projects on the Panama Canal.
December 18, 2023
Judge Finds Sale Of Homes Linked To Grindr Chairman Unrelated To Arbitration

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge on Dec. 15 rejected several real estate holding companies’ argument for federal jurisdiction over breach of contract claims against them for allegedly breaching a settlement to repay a $30 million loan by attempting to sell 27 Indiana homes, finding that the causes of action are unrelated to a Singaporean arbitration between the lender and the chairman of the Grindr dating app.
December 18, 2023
Equatorial Guinea Appeals Confirmation Of $13M Award For Clinic Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 15 docketed the Republic of Equatorial Guinea’s (EG) appeal challenging the confirmation of an arbitral award against it worth more than $13 million for abruptly terminating a Swiss company’s contract to manage a hospital in the country.
December 04, 2023
COMMENTARY: Public Policy Challenges To Arbitration Awards In The United Arab Emirates

By Moamen Elwan and Nils de Wolff
December 15, 2023
Presiding Arbitrator Dissents From Production Order In ICSID Claim Against Qatar

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a split tribunal’s order on document production issued in a French-Algerian investor’s pending claim against the state of Qatar, with the presiding arbitrator dissenting from the denial of the claimant’s requests for business records he says were seized from him when he was detained by Qatar for six months.
December 15, 2023
Judge Denies Venezuela’s Request To Certify Appeal Of Attachment Orders Worth $8B

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge on Dec. 14 after a hearing denied a request by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) to certify for interlocutory appeal his order granting writs of attachment to arbitral award-creditors and bondholders seeking to enforce judgments that Venezuela says are collectively worth more than $8 billion.
December 15, 2023
Split Tribunal Rejects Spanish Energy Investor’s $667M Claim Against Argentina

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal on Dec. 14 rejected a Spanish investor’s claims against the Argentine Republic for harming its investment and causing damages estimated at up to $667 million, finding that the investor was not harmed by arbitrary measures or forced to accept reduced income based on the nation’s regulatory changes, while the dissenting arbitrator said the investor was deceived by Argentina.
December 15, 2023
Tribunal Denies Some Of Guatemala’s Objections To $320M Electricity Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Dec. 14 published a tribunal’s ruling refusing to terminate two consolidated claims brought against the Republic of Guatemala by Colombian and Guatemalan electricity investors after granting and rejecting in part Guatemala’s preliminary objections and rejecting its arguments that the investors should have pursued administrative or legal remedies instead of arbitration.
December 14, 2023
Mining Company Urges ICSID To Find Jurisdiction Over NAFTA Claim Against Canada

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a bankrupt coal mining company’s countermemorial opposing the Canadian government’s arguments that the tribunal lacks jurisdiction over its claims for harming its investments in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), writing that Canada should be precluded from challenging its standing based on Canada’s arguments in a previous dispute between the parties.
December 13, 2023
Russia Asserts Sovereign Immunity Defense To Investor’s $5B Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Russian Federation (RF) moved in District of Columbia federal court to dismiss a petition to enforce an arbitral against it worth more than $5 billion, writing that it never ratified the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), under which the arbitration claims were brought, and that the award is invalid because the award-creditor is not a protected investor and did not have its funds expropriated.
December 12, 2023
3rd Circuit Asks Venezuela, Creditors To Address If Attachment Order Is Final

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals consolidated 11 appeals filed by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) challenging writs of attachment granted to arbitral award-creditors and bondholders seeking to enforce judgments collectively worth billions and asked the parties to address whether the order is final and appealable.
December 12, 2023
High Court Gives Chinese Entity More Time To Respond In Ecuadorian Oil Award Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court granted a Chinese company-owned oil investor nearly two months to respond to a U.S. oil company’s petition for a writ of certiorari challenging the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of an award against it worth more than $392 million in relation to a $1 billion Ecuadorian oil dispute between the parties after requesting a response from the Chinese investor.
December 12, 2023
D.C. Circuit Affirms Confirmation Of $440M ICSID Award Against Venezuela

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award worth more than $440 million against Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its foreign ministry for the expropriation of two Spanish entities’ investments was properly confirmed without review of the tribunal’s merits or jurisdictional findings pursuant to the ICSID Convention.
December 11, 2023
Shareholder Tells 2nd Circuit Gabon Account Freeze Order In Pipeline Dispute Was Proper

NEW YORK — An investor in a Cameroonian pipeline company currently arbitrating a shareholder dispute tells the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an appellee brief that a federal judge correctly ordered two Citibank entities to comply with an emergency arbitrator’s order that they compel a Gabonese affiliate to freeze the pipeline company’s $151 million account, writing that the court did not err or abuse its discretion.