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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Iraq Oil Redux

(CN) - The 9th Circuit on Tuesday withdrew and replaced its July 16 dismissal of a lawsuit accusing Iraq of canceling oil contracts with two Cyprus-based brokerage companies.

The superseding ruling does not substantially alter the court's earlier decision, but expands a section establishing appellate jurisdiction.

The federal appeals court ruled that the contracts in the underlying lawsuit were too tenuously tied to the United States to justify jurisdiction here.

In their lawsuit against the Republic of Iraq, Pentonville Developers and Marblearch Trading said Iraqi officials canceled their contracts to buy oil under the United Nations' Oil for Food Program after they refused to pay additional fees.

"Plaintiffs' claim is based on neither a legally significant commercial act that occurred in the United States nor an act that had a direct and legally significant effect in the United States," Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote, squashing the companies' bid for $6.25 million in brokerage fees.

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