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

Mealey's International Arbitration

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.
April 16, 2024
COMMENTARY: Interview: Carly Miller And David W. Owen Of Bradley Discuss Discovery And Third-Party Funding In International Arbitration

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April 15, 2024
COMMENTARY: AI In Dispute Resolutions – Can AI Replace Human Judges, Lawyers And Experts?

By Nikki Coles and Lucia Yau
April 02, 2024
COMMENTARY: Abu Dhabi’s Global Vision For Arbitration Comes To Fruition With Opening Of ArbitrateAD

By Antonia Birt, Laura Adams and Avinash Poorooye
April 19, 2024
Investors Say Peru Has No Defense To Enforcement Of $108M Land Bond Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two U.S. investment entities filed a brief opposing the Republic of Peru’s motion to dismiss their petition to confirm an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award in their favor worth more than $108 million issued in relation to a decades-old land bond dispute, writing that Peru has no legal basis for opposition and is trying “to rewrite the history of its unlawful conduct.”
April 18, 2024
Judge Denies Motion To Compel, Stays Saudi Contract Dispute Pending Arbitration

HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut federal judge on April 17 denied a Florida company’s motion to compel arbitration after vacating his order granting the motion, but stayed contract dispute litigation brought against it by a Connecticut company over delivery of hazmat supplies to a Saudi Arabian entity pending the outcome of arbitration, citing his prior finding that the parties entered into a binding arbitration agreement.
April 18, 2024
ICSID Tribunal Won’t Bifurcate German Shipper’s Claim Against Albania

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on April 17 published a tribunal’s order denying the Republic of Albania’s request to bifurcate a claim brought against it by a German shipping company for harming its investment in operating a terminal at the Port of Durres.
April 18, 2024
English Panel Upholds Stay In Dispute Over Which Reinsurance Agreement Controls

LONDON — Upholding the stay of an English case in a reinsurance dispute and saying “the parties began by playing cricket but then switched to baseball,” a three-justice panel of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales agreed with a lower court that the operative agreement calls for arbitration in New York.
April 17, 2024
Saudi Heirs’ Lawyer Tells 9th Circuit ‘Corruption’ To Blame For $268,000 Sanction

SAN FRANCISCO — An attorney who represented several heirs of a Saudi Arabian sheikh in unsuccessful attempts to confirm a controversial $18 billion award against two oil companies tells the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an appellant brief that a more than $268,000 sanction against him for filing a fake news article is the product of an “abuse of judicial authority, corruption and collusion.”
April 16, 2024
Japanese Investor Says 25M Euro Award Against Spain Not Bound By EU Law

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Japanese solar energy investor on April 15 filed a brief in District of Columbia federal court opposing the Kingdom of Spain’s motion to dismiss or stay its petition to confirm an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award in its favor worth more than 25 million euros for harming its investment, writing that its action is “unique” because it is not based in the European Union.
April 11, 2024
Equatorial Guinea Tells D.C. Circuit It Didn’t Agree To Arbitrate Clinic Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an appellant brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea (EG) challenges the confirmation of an arbitral award against it worth more than $13 million for terminating a Swiss company’s contract to manage a hospital, arguing that that the breach of contract dispute was not arbitrable.
April 10, 2024
Court Enters $8.9M Judgment Enforcing Hong Kong Awards For Non-Repayment To Funder

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida federal judge on April 9 entered civil judgments worth roughly $8.9 million against an investor under conservatorship in Colorado and his attorney, after confirming Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (HKIAC) awards against the two for failure to repay a litigation funder.
April 10, 2024
5th Circuit Won’t Rehear Insureds’ Dispute Over Arbitrability Of Storm Claims

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 9 denied two New Orleans property owners’ petition for panel or en banc rehearing of their appeal challenging the arbitrability of their claims for $7 million in damages caused by Hurricane Ida and for bad faith against a group of foreign and domestic insurers.
April 09, 2024
Court Confirms More Than $6M ICC Award For Uranium Sales Dispute

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge confirmed an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitral award worth more than $6 million in favor of a German entity against a New York-based U.S. company that did not appear in court for a dispute arising out of a uranium sales contract and granted the German entity’s request for more than $1.3 million in additional interest.
April 09, 2024
2nd Circuit Affirms Turnover Order Enforcing $185M Award Against Hong Kong Entity

NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 8 affirmed a judge’s ruling ordering that a Hong Kong entity turn over 100% of its interest in an affiliate that owns real estate in New York and Chicago to partly satisfy a JAMS arbitral award against it worth more than $185 million, writing that turnover is proper because the entity had tried to obstruct enforcement of the award.
April 02, 2024
Russia Tells D.C. Circuit Court Lacked Jurisdiction To Confirm $57B Awards

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Russian Federation on April 1 filed an appellant brief urging the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a judge’s denial of its motion to dismiss a petition to confirm arbitral awards against it worth more than $57 billion for lack of jurisdiction, arguing that the court wrongly found that it waived its sovereign immunity.