Ruling favors Perrysburg company

Employees of glass container maker Owens Illinois attend a protest in Los Guayos, Venezuela, in October, 2010.
Enlarge

A worldwide body that resolves disputes between companies and countries has rejected a request by Venezuela to disqualify two arbitrators who ruled in favor of Owens-Illinois Inc. in a case involving the two parties.

The International Centre for Settlement of investment Disputes said one of the arbiters, Alexis Mourre, a French national, already had stepped down from the case, making the request moot.

The request to remove the second arbiter, Yves Fortier, a Canadian national, was not made in a timely manner and was rejected, the centre said.

O-I, a glass bottle maker based in Perrysburg, said it would not comment.

Both arbiters were on a three-member panel to oversee a compensation complaint by O-I to resolve the 2010 decision by Venezuela, under then-president Hugo Chavez, to confiscate the company’s two glass plants located in the South American country.

The move was one of several undertaken by Mr. Chavez at the time to nationalize the operations of foreign companies operating in Venezuela.

On March 12, the three-member panel sided with O-I and awarded the company a $455 million judgment against Venezuela, claiming the country unlawfully expropriated plants.

Venezuelan officials had attempted to disqualify the two panel members on the grounds of conflicts of interest.

Mr. Mourre, who had been chosen by Venezuelan officials to sit on the panel, took a consulting job in March with a law firm that had in the past represented litigants involved in cases against Venezuela. Days after the panel sided with O-I, Mr. Mourre resigned.

Mr. Fortier, who had been selected for the panel by O-I, had his objectivity challenged because he was part of a law firm that was acquired in 2012 by a firm that sued Venezuela on behalf of a corporate client.

However, the centre said Mr. Fortier had resigned from the law firm at the end of 2011 and had severed all professional links with the firm.

The centre added that Venezuelan officials were aware of Mr. Fortier’s situation as of this January but did not file their request until March when they learned Mr. Mourre was resigning.

The centre’s rules state that a request to disqualify an arbiter needs to be submitted promptly. “In these circumstances, the disqualification proposal cannot be considered timely filed,” the centre said in its ruling.

Venezuela has yet to request the $455 million award be set aside. It has until early July to make such a request and the case could drag on another three years if it appeals.

Venezuela is facing at least 30 international arbitration cases following the nationalizations orchestrated by Mr. Chavez, who died in 2013.

Recently the centre rejected Venezuela’s request to review an award of $1.6 billion to Exxon Mobil. A ruling on a separate request for annulment of that award is due in 2016.

Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.