Miami attorneys including former Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero are challenging an appellate ruling they argue would require Florida courts to take marching orders from totalitarian regimes.

The attorneys represent two brothers sued in Miami by the Ecuadorean government for allegedly embezzling about $662 million from Filanbanco, the bank where they were administrators. The defendants, Roberto and William Isaias Dassum, initially won dismissal of the lawsuit on standing and statute of limitations grounds.

But in December, the Third District Court of Appeal reversed the decision on both issues. The court ruled the statute of limitations began running in 2008, when Ecuador's version of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation found the Isaias brothers liable for the bank's losses and ordered the seizure of their assets.