The case of the day is EFG Bank AG, Cayman Branch v. AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. (S.D.N.Y. 2018). The judge had previously denied a motion by EFG, a Swiss bank, for a protective order that would have required AXA to seek discovery of information located in Switzerland via the Hague Evidence Convention. EFG sought reconsideration.
The case of the day is Wultz v. Bank of China Ltd. (S.D.N.Y. 2013). We first considered this case in November 2012. Here was my description of the facts from the prior post: In 2006, Daniel Wultz was killed, and Yekutiel Wultz injured, in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. Members of the Wultz family sued the Bank of China, alleging that the bank had violated the Antiterrorism Act, 18 USC § 2333, and that it was guilty of negligence etc. In the earlier decision, the judge ordered the bank to produce documents under the FRCP rather than requiring resort to the Hague Evidence Convention, notwithstanding the bank’s invocation of China’s bank secrecy laws. The only exception the judge established was for “confidential regulatory…
Tagged: Aerospatiale, China, Hague Evidence Convention
The case of the day is SEC v. Stanford International Bank Ltd. (N.D. Tex. 2011). The court had earlier appointed a receiver to take control of the assets of R. Allen Stanford and various affiliates. In today’s case, the receiver sought to obtain information about the Stanford defendants’ accounts at Société Générale Private Banking (Suisse) S.A., which was a Swiss firm with its main office in Geneva but with one branch office in Miami. The receiver served a subpoena, apparently on SG’s office in Miami, but the documents were located in Switzerland. SG objected to the subpoena on the grounds that it could not comply with the subpoena without violating Swiss criminal law and that the receiver should have sought the evidence under the Hague…
Tagged: Aerospatiale, Hague Evidence Convention, subpoena, Switzerland