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Mealey's International Arbitration

  • May 16, 2024

    U.S. High Court:  With Request, Arbitrable Dispute Must Be Stayed, Not Dismissed

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A case involving an arbitrable dispute must be stayed and not dismissed pending arbitration where a party has requested a stay, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled May 16 in a case brought by delivery drivers against the individual owners and managers of Intelliserve and related corporate entities (together, Intelliserve).

  • May 15, 2024

    Chevron Asks 9th Circuit To Dismiss Saudi Heirs’ Appeal Of $268,000 Sanction

    SAN FRANCISCO — Chevron Corp. and Chevron U.S.A. (collectively, Chevron) filed motions in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking summary disposition of an attorney’s appeal of a $268,000 sanction against him and asking the court to stay deadlines pending a decision on the motion, writing that the lawyer raises no valid arguments challenging the sanctions ordered against him for filing a fake news article during an appeal over an $18 billion award.

  • May 15, 2024

    D.C. Circuit Rejects Romania’s Challenge To $350M ICSID Award Based On EU Rulings

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 14 affirmed a federal judge’s denial of the government of Romania’s motion for relief from judgment ordering them to pay Swedish investors and their companies more than $350 million, writing that the court was not deprived of jurisdiction based on rulings from the European Union’s highest court deeming the underlying arbitral award invalid.

  • May 14, 2024

    AI Investor Seeks To Enforce $25M Hong Kong Award In Shareholders’ Dispute

    NEW YORK — A Cayman Islands investor in artificial intelligence (AI) companies filed a petition in New York federal court seeking to confirm a Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) award against certain Chinese entities and citizens and one Cayman Islands entity worth $25 million, which the plaintiff says the defendants are required to pay after breaching a settlement.

  • May 14, 2024

    Judge Orders Discovery In Bid To Enforce $1.5M Award Against Bankrupt German CEO

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge refused to dismiss a video game streaming platform’s petition to confirm a JAMS award worth nearly $1.5 million against two German entities and their shareholder, the former CEO of the original award-debtor, and ordered further jurisdictional discovery to determine whether the court can exercise jurisdiction over the German defendants.

  • May 13, 2024

    2nd Circuit Dismisses Arbitrator Bias Appeal As Moot After Award Is Made

    NEW YORK — After being informed that an arbitration award issued the day before oral argument was scheduled to occur mooted the appeal, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel had the parties appear for a brief discussion and then on May 10 dismissed the case, also ordering that the lower court’s ruling be vacated.

  • May 13, 2024

    High Court Urged To Review Minimum Contacts Rule In $1.3B Indian Award Row

    WASHINGTON D.C. — Four entities affiliated with a liquidated Indian satellite company that won an arbitral award worth $1.3 billion urge the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for a writ of certiorari to resolve a circuit conflict over the applicability of minimum contacts analysis to jurisdiction over a foreign entity, writing that Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ precedent on the issue conflicts with four other circuits.

  • May 10, 2024

    ICSID Declines To Suspend Gas Investor’s $1B NAFTA Claim Pending USMCA Rulings

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on May 9 published a tribunal’s order denying Canada’s request that it suspend a U.S. liquid natural gas (LNG) investor’s claims for $1 billion in damages under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) pending a separate tribunal’s decision on the applicability of the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) during a transition period between the treaties.

  • May 08, 2024

    ICSID Publishes 61M Euro Award Against Bulgaria For Energy Contract Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on May 7 published a tribunal’s award against the Republic of Bulgaria for more than 61 million euros after finding that it breached the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) and harmed a Maltese solar power investor by reducing incentives for solar investment upon which the investor had relied.

  • May 07, 2024

    ICSID Publishes Split Tribunal’s Award Rejecting $3.3B Claim Against Romania

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on May 6 published a split tribunal’s award rejecting Canadian and British investors’ claims against Romania for harming their investment in gold and silver mining by denying them environmental permits that were needed to open the mine and instead moving to preserve the mine as a cultural heritage site and ordered the investors to pay Romania more than $10 million in attorney fees and arbitration costs.

  • May 06, 2024

    Swiss Company Urges D.C. Circuit To Uphold $13M Award Against Equatorial Guinea

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Swiss hospital management company on May 3 filed an appellee brief to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals urging it to reject arguments by the Republic of Equatorial Guinea (EG) that a $13 million award for breach of contract was improper and should have been litigated in local courts, writing that the parties agreed to delegate arbitrability to the tribunal.

  • May 06, 2024

    Judge Denies Dismissal To Insolvent Insurer’s Owners, Cites ‘Perfunctory Argument’

    GREENSBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge denied a motion filed by the owners of an insolvent insurer seeking to dismiss a petition to confirm an arbitration award for a Dutch insurer in liquidation, finding that the owners’ new argument on appeal that the award is prohibited as a monetary penalty fails because “it is not the court’s job to undertake the analysis and legal research needed to support a perfunctory argument.”

  • May 03, 2024

    D.C. Circuit Urged To Defer To Dutch Rulings Upholding $57B Awards Against Russia

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The former majority shareholders of Yukos Oil Co. filed an appellee brief arguing that the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should disregard the Russian Federation’s arguments for reversal of the confirmation of arbitral awards against it worth more than $57 billion for lack of jurisdiction, writing that Dutch courts with primary jurisdiction have already upheld the award.

  • May 02, 2024

    Judge Confirms $300K Cashew Arbitral Award Against African Company

    NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge granted a California company’s petition to confirm an arbitral award in its favor worth nearly $300,000 for a dispute over the nondelivery of a cashew shipment after the African company against whom the award was issued failed to appear in court.

  • May 02, 2024

    Judge Won’t Reconsider Confirming Sanctions Award In Telecommunications Row

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on May 1 denied a motion for reconsideration of his ruling confirming a partial final award against the majority shareholders of a Latin American telecommunications company that are engaged in a dispute over minority shareholders seeking to force a sale of the company, writing that “It is long since time” the majority shareholders “recognize that they have lost.”

  • May 01, 2024

    Judge Enters Default Judgment Confirming $2.4B Award Against Iranian Gas Company

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on April 30 entered default judgment confirming an arbitral award against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s state-owned oil company worth more than $2.4 billion for failure to deliver raw gas after the Iranian company failed to appear for two years.

  • April 30, 2024

    ICSID Tribunal Awards $9.4M Against Colombia For Harming Marine Investment

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on April 29 published a tribunal’s award in favor of a Swiss investor and its Colombian subsidiaries, who won $9.4 million in damages against the Republic of Colombia after Colombia barred them from charging tariffs to companies and coal exporters using a channel at a port the claimants had constructed.

  • April 29, 2024

    U.S. Citizen Sues Armenia For Costs, Fees Awarded By ICSID After Annulment

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California resident filed a petition in District of Columbia federal court seeking to enforce an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ad hoc committee’s decision annulling an arbitral award dismissing his claims for lack of jurisdiction and ordering the Republic of Armenia to pay him nearly $440,000, including $150,000 in attorney fees.

  • April 26, 2024

    Judge Bars Double Recovery To Award-Creditor As Venezuelan Oil Share Auction Looms

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Delaware on April 25 issued an order granting a special master’s motion to clarify judgments that will be enforced at a planned auction of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company’s assets, in which creditors will seek to enforce an estimated $24 billion in judgments, writing that companies that have partly enforced judgments for the same damages will not “receive a double recovery.”

  • April 26, 2024

    ICSID Orders Spain To Pay 700,000 Euros In Attorney Fees, Won’t Annul Award

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ad hoc committee denied the Kingdom of Spain’s application to annul an award against it for more than 30 million euros for harming the investments of two hydro and wind energy investors and ordered Spain to pay the investors nearly 700,000 euros in attorney fees.

  • April 24, 2024

    ICSID Rejects U.S. Companies’ $31M Cap-And-Trade NAFTA Claim Against Canada

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published an arbitral tribunal’s award dismissing for lack of jurisdiction all claims brought by Koch Industries Inc. (KI) and its subsidiary against the government of Canada after finding that the claimants’ cap-and-trade purchases were not a protected investment under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

  • April 23, 2024

    Judge Awards Dutch Shipper $10,000 In Attorney Fees, Citing ‘Vexatious Tactics’

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on April 22 granted a Dutch shipbroker’s motion for an award of attorney fees incurred litigating a Maine company’s “frivolous and bad-faith” post-award motions, which the court concluded were intended to delay enforcement of an award worth more than $633,000 for violation of a maritime contract.

  • April 22, 2024

    Chilean Contractor Says Quasi In Rem Action Proper To Enforce $140M Award

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Chilean contractor in an April 19 brief in Delaware federal court opposes an Italy-based multinational construction company’s motion to dismiss its petition to enforce an arbitral award worth more than $140 million for a hospital construction contract dispute, writing that the Italian’s company’s assets in Delaware make it subject to the court’s jurisdiction.

  • April 22, 2024

    Split Panel Upholds Russia’s Challenges To Arbitrators In Ukrainian Vessel Dispute

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Two members resigned from a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal hearing arbitral claims brought against the Russian Federation by Ukraine for the 2018 detention of three Ukrainian vessels and 24 servicemen after a split panel upheld challenges against them for lack of impartiality after they signed an international law association’s declaration condemning Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.

  • April 22, 2024

    11th Circuit Affirms Denial Of Cruise Worker’s Petition To Vacate Award

    MIAMI — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the denial of a cruise worker’s petition to vacate an arbitral award rejecting his claims against his employer for negligence in connection with a sound speaker falling onto his foot, holding that the trial court lacked the power to vacate the award as it is not the primary jurisdiction in which the award was issued.