Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Livingston Partner Daniel J. DiMuro and Senior Counsel Cara A. Fialkoff successfully resolved a multi-million dollar breach of contract commercial dispute pending in the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) on behalf of an international private aviation client.
The claimant initiated the arbitration seeking the return of significant amounts of money previously provided to our client in connection with an exclusive membership program. This program offers large corporations and private individuals the ability to purchase private flight hours for a given period at a set hourly rate. During the arbitration, the GRSM team uncovered substantial information concerning ongoing litigation filed against the claimant pending in other countries, which was never disclosed to the client, and was a direct violation of the agreement between the two parties.
In addition to a criminal action pending in the Southern District of New York, GRSM discovered the existence of a worldwide asset freeze that was implemented by the UK High Court before the initiation of the arbitration. The subject orders explicitly provided that the claimant must not “in any way dispose of, deal with or diminish the value of any of his assets, whether they are in or outside England and Wales up to the same value [US$500 million].” While there was a limited exception in the orders for fees associated with legal advice and representation, the GRSM attorneys argued that the exception did not extend to the LCIA’s arbitration proceeding. This discovery was critical as the claimant disingenuously stated to the LCIA that he was not subject to any other restrictions that would freeze or impede the availability of funds or economic resources belonging to or held by him to pay fees required by the LCIA.
Following a favorable ruling by the LCIA, with respect to the worldwide asset freeze, the GRSM team was able to negotiate a highly favorable resolution for our client. This result highlights GRSM’s ability to achieve favorable outcomes in complex cases for our clients.