A Cowles Thompson team of attorneys was recently successful in obtaining recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award under the Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.
Our client is an India manufacturer that worked with a Ft. Worth, Texas company to produce Apple iPhone boxes in India. The two companies decided to unwind their relationship and signed a contract requiring the Ft. Worth company to make a series of payments to our client and agreed to arbitrate any disputes. All payments were not made and our client filed an arbitration action in India. The arbitral panel ruled in our client’s favor and entered a Final Arbitral Award against the Ft. Worth company, but it failed to pay the award. Our client was forced to come to the U.S. and file suit seeking recognition and enforcement of the foreign award.
The Ft. Worth company raised a number of alleged defenses and counterclaims. The court rejected each asserted defense on the merits and also held that the failure to raise the defenses in the India arbitration precluded the Ft. Worth company from asserting them now. The court also ruled that actions to confirm international arbitration awards are not civil actions but rather summary proceedings in the nature of federal motion practice and thus counterclaims could not be raised. The court granted summary judgment and entered a Final Judgment in favor of our client for the amount of the arbitral award and accrued interest on the award converted from Rupees to Dollars.
Cowles Thompson attorneys included: Sim Israeloff as lead attorney, with Shareholders LenéAlley DeRudder, Bill Siegel, and Casey Erick.
Photo: Luis Quintero
