Comments on: Case of the Day: Sea Search Armada v. Colombia https://lettersblogatory.com/2013/04/15/case-of-the-day-sea-search-armada-v-colombia/ The Blog of International Judicial Assistance Sun, 01 Dec 2024 03:43:11 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Ted Folkman https://lettersblogatory.com/2013/04/15/case-of-the-day-sea-search-armada-v-colombia/#comment-1271 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:19:55 +0000 http://lettersblogatory.com/?p=13745#comment-1271 Sea Search Armada has commenced another action against Colombia in the District of Columbia, alleging tortious intererence with its contracts with salvage contractors. I was quite surprised by this for what should be obvious reasons. I know that SSA has a view about why its new claims can proceed, but this seems to me to be plainly within the doctrine of bar, see Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 19. It’s true that the new cause of action was not in the first complaint, but the doctrine of bar does not permit claim splitting:

“When a valid and final judgment rendered in an action extinguishes the plaintiff’s claim pursuant to the rules of merger or bar …, the claim extinguished includes all rights of the plaintiff to remedies against the defendant with respect to all or any part of the transaction, or series of connected transactions, out of which the action arose.”

Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 24. I’m just saying.

]]> By: Ted Folkman https://lettersblogatory.com/2013/04/15/case-of-the-day-sea-search-armada-v-colombia/#comment-1270 Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:06:49 +0000 http://lettersblogatory.com/?p=13745#comment-1270 IJA member Jie Huang points to a 2009 ICSID decision in Malaysian Historical Salvors v. Malaysia, holding that ICSID had jurisdiction to consider the salvor’s claim against the Malaysian government under the UK/Malaysia bilateral investment treaty on facts similar to the facts in our case. She suggests that since the United States has a BIT with Colombia, Sea Search Armada might have a claim under the investment treaty—though she notes that in the Malaysian case it’s not clear what happened once the tribunal reached the merits. She also points to her forthcoming paper in Ocean and Coastal Management on “Chasing provenance: Legal dilemmas for protecting states with a verifiable link to underwater culture heritage.” She points out that Spain, as well as Colombia, has a claim to the San Jose and that the question of title to underwater cultural heritage is a tricky topic.

Thanks, Jie, for commenting on these issues!

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