Judge Paul Engelmayer
A London arbitral panel awarded Daebo Shipping $306,234 against Americas Bulk Transport (ABT) based on a finding of contract breach. Before the award’s entry, Daebo Shipping merged into Daebo International Shipping. The panel declined to amend the award in Daebo International’s favor. Before Daebo International served ABT with its petition to recognize, confirm and enforce the arbitral award, Daebo Shipping filed a verified complaint to enforce the award against ABT and six purported alter ego defendants. Rather than dismissing Daebo Shipping’s amended complaint, the courtdiscussing Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 17(a)(3) and citing Lambrinos v. Exxon Mobil and Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleumgranted Daebo Shipping leave to file a second amended complaint naming Daebo International as plaintiff. The second amended complaint was to name ABT as the sole defendant. The court dismissed the claims against the six alter ego defendants. Under Second Circuit precedent, including Orion Shipping & Trading v. Eastern States Petroleum Corp. of Panama, a petition to confirm a foreign arbitral award is an inappropriate forum to adjudicate alter ego collection proceedings.
