On September 6, 2023, the Southern District of New York confirmed the arbitration award held by Telecom Business Solutions, LLC, LATAM Towers, LLC, and AMLQ Holdings Ltd. against Terra Towers Corp., TBS Management S.A., and DT Holdings, Inc.
The respondents in this case sought to vacate the award on four bases: (1) the Tribunal acted in "manifest disregard of law," (2) the Tribunal denied the respondents a full and fair opportunity to be heard, (3) the Tribunal exceeded its authority, and (4) the Tribunal demonstrated "evident partiality." The Court found these arguments to be "without merit."
In rejecting respondents' arguments, the Southern District emphasized that the "manifest disregard of law" basis for vacating an award is a "doctrine of last resort" limited to "exceedingly rare instances where some egregious impropriety on the part of the arbitrators is apparent." Similarly, vacatur under FAA Section 10(a)(3) is limited to those "most egregious error[s] which adversely affect the rights of a party." The Court found that not to be the case here where "[r]espondents had ample opportunity to be heard during the proceedings ... including -- by [r]espondents' own estimation -- 'more than 80 (mostly signle spaced) pages of briefing,' 'more than 1,300 pages of exhibits,' and a three-hour hearing with arguments from both sides." The Court further found that the Tribunal had a "broad grant of authority" and that respondents' claim of bias fails, among other reasons, because they had agreed to abide by the AAA Commercial Arbitration Rules stating that decisions by the ICDR shall be conclusive.
The case is Telecom Business Solution, LLC v. Terra Towers Corp., No. 22-cv-1761 (S.D.N.Y.). Petitioners were represented by David Landman, Gregory Djordjevic, Karherine Michelle Poldneff, and Michael Ungar from Ulmer & Berne LLP, as well as Gregg Weiner, Andrew Simon Todres, Daniel Ward, Ethan Fitzgerald, and Katherine McDonald of Ropes & Gray LLP. Respondents were represented by George Kroup and John Baughman from the Law Offices of John F. Baughman, Jonathan Lupkin and Michael B. Smith of Lupkin PLLC, John Basinger of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP, as well as Luke Jacobs and Juan Jose Rodriguez of Carey Rodrigues Milian, LLP.
The opinion may be downloaded below.
Comments