Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-11-1998

Abstract

Defendant-appellant-cross-appellee La Fuerza Aerea Boliviana (the Bolivian Air Force) (the "BAF") appeals from an amended default judgment entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Mishler, J.) in favor of plaintiff-appellee-cross-appellant Transaero, Inc. ("Transaero"). The amended judgment was entered after the court denied a motion by the BAF for relief from the original default judgment awarding damages for money owed on a credit agreement. In denying the motion, the district court determined that the BAF had implicitly waived the defenses of improper service of process and lack of personal jurisdiction under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act ("FSIA"), see 28 U.S.C. §§ 1602 et seq., by previously appearing in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (the "EDNY") and in this Court to argue for relief from the original judgment under the provisions of Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b). When the BAF first appeared in the EDNY, its appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia enforcing that judgment was pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (the "D.C. Circuit"). The order subsequently was reversed by the D.C. Circuit, which held that Transaero could not enforce the judgment it previously obtained in the EDNY because it had not complied with the FSIA in regard to service of process.

Transaero cross-appeals from various orders of the EDNY and from the judgment as amended. The amendment reduced the original award from $983,696 to $336,232.

For the reasons that follow, we reverse the amended judgment entered in the EDNY and dismiss the cross-appeal.

Comments

162 F.3d 724 (1998)

TRANSAERO, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. LA FUERZA AEREA BOLIVIANA, an agency or instrumentality of the Republic of Bolivia, a Foreign State, Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee.

Docket Nos. 97-9317, 97-9327.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued July 13, 1998.

Decided December 11, 1998.

New York Law School location: File #2671, Box #139

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