Letters Blogatory

The Blog of International Judicial Assistance | By Ted Folkman of Folkman LLC

Posts tagged “Thailand

Case of the Day: Thai-Lao Lignite v. Laos

Posted on July 19, 2012

The case of the day is Thai-Lao Lignite (Thailand) Co. v. Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (2d Cir. 2012). We first saw the case in my post of August 25, 2011. I have also reported on two related cases under 28 U.S.C. § 1782, one a request for judicial assistance to obtain discovery from Laos itself, the other a request for judicial assistance to obtain discovery from Électricité de France International in order to uncover Laotian assets from which the judgment against Laos could be satisfied. In the prior post, I described the facts as follows: Lignite is a low-quality coal used for generating electricity. The Hongsa region of Laos, near the Thai border, has it, and in the early 1990s, Thailand…

+Read more

Case of the Day: Kudu Co. v. Latimer

Posted on September 13, 2011

The case of the day is Kudu Co. v. Latimer (E.D. Tex. 2011). Kudu sued for confirmation of a Thai arbitral award against Latimer. Latimer first moved to dismiss on the grounds that he had not been served with process. The dispute centered on whether Latimer actually resided at the Texas address where he was served with process. The court denied the motion to dismiss, apparently concluding that the address where service was made was Latimer’s “dwelling or usual place of abode,” see Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(e)(2)(B). But when Latimer later moved to dismiss on the grounds that the court could not exercise personal jurisdiction, the magistrate judge concluded that Latimer was a resident of Thailand and recommended granting the motion. This is…

+Read more

Case of the Day: Thai-Lao Lignite (Thailand) Co. v. Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Posted on August 25, 2011

Lignite is a low-quality coal used for generating electricity. The Hongsa region of Laos, near the Thai border, has it, and in the early 1990s, Thailand needed to import electricity. And so a joint venture was born. Thai-Lao Lignite, a Thai company, entered into a Project Development Agreement with the Lao government giving it exclusive exploration and mining rights in the region. The idea was that Thai-Lao Lignite would build a Lignite-fired power plant on the Lao side of the border, and Laos would sell the electricity to Thailand. The PDA called for Thai-Lao Lignite to organize another entity, Thai-Lao Power Co., under Lao law, and to assign its rights and obligations under the PDA to the Lao company. Thai-Lao Lignite never made the…

+Read more