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

Mealey's International Arbitration

October 23, 2023
Nigeria Wins Challenge In English Court To $11B Gas Supply Award Based On Fraud

LONDON — An English judge on Oct. 23 ruled in favor of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and found that an arbitral award against it worth more than $11 billion was procured through “abuses of the arbitral process” including fraud and bribery and due to “serious irregularity” cannot be enforced in favor of an Irish-owned company that brought arbitration over a thwarted gas supply contract entered into in 2010.
October 23, 2023
Chilean Contractor Asks Court To Confirm $139M Award Against Italian Builder

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Chilean contractor filed a petition in Delaware federal court seeking to enforce an arbitral award in its favor worth more than $139 million for a hospital construction contract dispute against an Italian construction company that acquired the bankrupt award-debtor and allegedly accepted liability for the award, writing that the court has jurisdiction based on the presence in Delaware of the Italian company’s U.S. subsidiary.
October 23, 2023
Russia Says Dutch Advocate General’s Opinion Not Final Word On Fraud Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Russian Federation filed a response brief urging a District of Columbia federal judge to disregard a recent advisory opinion of the Dutch Supreme Court’s advocate general, writing that the opinion does not strengthen the claims of shareholders seeking to enforce arbitral awards against Russia worth more than $57 billion and asserting that its claims of fraud in the underlying arbitration remain pending.
September 27, 2023
COMMENTARY: The Approach Of Courts In England & Wales To Violations Of International Public Policy

By Leonor d’Albiousse
October 20, 2023
ICSID Ad Hoc Committee Refuses To Annul 17.7M Euro Award Against Italy

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ad hoc committee ordered the Italian Republic to pay 807,000 euros in attorney fees and $421,000 in arbitration costs after rejecting in full its application to annul a 17.7 million euro award against it for harming German and Austrian solar power investors by rescinding incentive tariffs upon which the investors relied.
October 20, 2023
Judge Refuses To Deem Zimbabwe’s Appeal In $264M Award Row Frivolous

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Oct. 19 denied two Zimbabwean plantation companies’ motion to certify as frivolous the Republic of Zimbabwe’s interlocutory appeal challenging the denial of its motions to dismiss the plantations’ petition to confirm an arbitral award against it worth more than $264 million, finding that “no binding case” controls the outcome of Zimbabwe’s appeal.
October 20, 2023
11th Circuit: Arbitration Order ‘Is Still Final,’ So Subrogees’ Appeal Continues

ATLANTA — Denying what it construed as a motion to dismiss an appeal concerning an alleged $28 million in damages to an Algerian power plant, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said, “Although the district court deferred the issue of the scope of the arbitration provisions to the arbitrator, its order is still final because it found that the provisions required it to do so.”
October 19, 2023
11th Circuit Vacates Order Restraining $10M To Pay Hong Kong Awards

ATLANTA — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a ruling restraining $10 million held under a Colorado conservatorship to pay a potential judgment confirming arbitral awards issued by a Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (HKIAC) tribunal against the individual under conservatorship and his conservator for failure to repay a litigation funder, finding that the court lacked the power to restrain those funds.
October 19, 2023
Serbia Denies Cypriot, Canadian Investors’ 30M Euro Land Use ICSID Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Oct. 18 published the Republic of Serbia’s countermemorial raising jurisdictional and admissibility objections to claims brought against it by Cypriot and Canadian investors who contend that Serbia caused 30 million euros in damages by building traffic infrastructure on land they sought to develop, which Serbia says was within its rights.
October 19, 2023
Split Tribunal Awards Jamaican Investor $43.5M In Dominican Landfill Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal awarded a Jamaican investor more than $43.5 million in damages against the Dominican Republic (DR) for the “indirect creeping expropriation” of his investment in an urban landfill but rejected his claims for damages based on allegedly thwarted plans to build a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant.
October 18, 2023
U.K. Supreme Court: Mozambique Must Arbitrate Bribery Claims Against Developers

LONDON — The United Kingdom Supreme Court ruled that the Republic of Mozambique must arbitrate allegations of bribery against shipbuilding and development entities that it accuses of exposing the nation to a $2 billion liability based on arbitration clauses in the contracts the entities entered into with state-owned investment entities, despite Mozambique’s status as a non-signatory to those contracts.
October 17, 2023
ICSID Won’t Hasten Dead Oil Investor’s Kids’ Claims Against Bulgaria

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Oct. 16 published an order denying a request to accelerate the timeline for briefing treaty claims brought against the Republic of Bulgaria by the two children of a dead Lithuanian oil investor, months after deferring a decision on whether the children have standing to bring claims for alleged harms to their father’s investment.
October 17, 2023
Kazakhstan Defends New Suit Seeking Dismissal Of $500M Award For Alleged Fraud

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republic of Kazakhstan filed a brief in District of Columbia federal court opposing dismissal of its new suit to set aside a judgment confirming an arbitral award worth more than $500 million in favor of two Moldovan investors and their companies, writing that the award is the product of fraud and that relief from judgment is warranted.
October 16, 2023
Supreme Court Grants Certiorari In 2nd Challenge To Chevron Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in a second case challenging the doctrine of Chevron deference and ordered that it be briefed on a schedule allowing argument “in tandem” with a pending case pertaining to the same issue, both of which involve challenges to regulations that require fishing vessels to pay federal monitors.
October 13, 2023
Mining Investor Petitions To Enforce $253M Award Against Bolivia For Expropriation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Bermudan investor filed a petition in the District of Columbia federal court to enforce a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal’s arbitral award in its favor worth more than $253 million against the Plurinational State of Bolivia for nationalizing its tin mining investments, asserting that there is no basis for the award to not be enforced against Bolivia.
October 12, 2023
En Banc Review Of Jurisdiction Not Needed In $1.3B Award Row, 9th Circuit Told

SAN FRANCISCO — An Indian state-owned company filed a response brief telling the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals it need not grant rehearing en banc of its ruling reversing the confirmation of an arbitral award against the company worth more than $1.3 billion for lack of jurisdiction, as is sought by the liquidated Indian company that won the award and its shareholders, writing that Ninth Circuit precedent on minimum contacts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) “is sound.”
October 12, 2023
Insurers Get Arbitration Award Confirmed Against Non-Appearing Reinsurer

FORT WORTH, Texas — Three U.S.-based insurers successfully sought confirmation of an arbitration award against a China-based reinsurer, with a Texas federal judge noting that the reinsurer did not appear in the action.
October 02, 2023
ICSID Tribunal Orders Peru To Pay More Than $50M For Canceling Airport Contract

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a tribunal’s award on jurisdiction, liability and certain aspects of quantum, awarding more than $50 million to an Argentine investor and its Peruvian subsidiary, who were awarded a contract to build an airport in Peru that was unfairly terminated.
September 29, 2023
Judge Compels Arbitration Of Ship Insurer’s Oil Tanker Dispute With Guarantor

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A federal judge in Puerto Rico granted a marine insurer’s motion to stay litigation and compel arbitration in London of a third-party complaint brought against it by an oil tanker’s guarantor over liability for claims brought by the United States in relation to the vessel running aground in 2006 and causing environmental damage despite the guarantor’s status as a nonsignatory to the arbitration agreement.
September 28, 2023
Judge Stays Award Ordering Dissolution Of Funds, Orders $11.5M Bond Pending Appeal

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Sept. 27 granted two Delaware investment entities’ motion to stay the portion of an arbitral award requiring them to dissolve two investment funds for breaching their fiduciary duty to Chinese and Hong Kong investors who had planned to invest $200 million in the funds and ordered them to post an $11.5 million supersedeas bond to stay the monetary portion of the award.
September 26, 2023
Mexican Filmmaker’s Son Seeks 9th Circuit Review Of $8.7M Award Based On ‘Fraud’

SAN FRANCISCO — A Mexican film producer’s son and his companies argue in an appellant brief to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a district court erred by confirming an $8.7 million arbitral award in favor of his father’s estate, companies and other children, arguing that the lower court incorrectly found that they untimely raised a challenge to the tribunal’s jurisdiction based on allegedly forged evidence.
September 25, 2023
Kellogg Brown & Root Wins $8M After Judge Offsets Awards To Kuwaiti Firm

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Virginia federal judge on Sept. 22 entered judgment worth more than $8 million in favor of an American company and against a Kuwaiti company for logistics contracts performed during the Iraq war and later disputed after offsetting separate awards and joint stipulations for monetary amounts in favor of each party.
September 25, 2023
Colombia Objects To Diving Company’s $10B Claim For Shipwrecked Treasure

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) published the Republic of Colombia’s objections to arbitration claims for more than $10 billion brought against it by an American diving company that claims that it was deprived of its share of “the biggest treasure in the history of humanity,” a Spanish galleon which sunk in 1708 that Colombia asserts it alone discovered.
September 25, 2023
Oil Company Seeks Vacatur Of Split Tribunal’s Award In Ecuadorian Oil Dispute

NEW YORK — A Texas oil company filed a cross-petition in New York federal court seeking to vacate a split tribunal’s arbitral award ordering it to pay a Chinese oil company roughly $3.7 million in attorney fees after rejecting its claim for $309 million as barred by the res judicata effect of an earlier award, writing that the tribunal manifestly disregarded the law by “declining to address” its “substantive claims.”
August 30, 2023
COMMENTARY: The Prague Rules Don’t Rule: A Look Into The IBA Challenger, Five Years Later

By Judith Swartz and Haley Son