Holland & Knight Defeats Default Judgment, Then Avoids Liability for Dominican Republic
Most Effective Lawyers: International litigation — The legal team successfully voided a $50 million default judgment and avoided liability in trial.
December 10, 2018 at 05:00 AM
3 minute read
Gregory Baldwin, Eduardo Ramos and Ilene Pabian, Holland & Knight.
Gregory Baldwin, Eduardo Ramos and Ilene Pabian
Holland & Knight
A Holland & Knight team succeeded in getting a $50 million default judgment reversed for the Dominican Republic and then carved the government out of the case.
Partners Gregory Baldwin and Eduardo Ramos persuaded a Miami federal judge to reject most of the breach-of-contract claims filed by two Miami construction companies against the Dominican Republic and its water resource agency, Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidraulicos, or INDRHI.
The case flowed from a $51.8 million irrigation construction contract awarded in 2001 to Sun Land & RGITC LLC and Architectural Ingenieria Siglo XXI LLC (AIS). Construction began in March 2004 but ran into several delays.
Nearly five years later, INDRHI terminated the contract, claiming force majeure because of difficulties financing the project. Sun Land and AIS sued INDRHI and the Dominican Republic in 2013, seeking breach-of-contract damages of more than $50 million.
When the Dominican Republic and INDRHI failed to respond to the suit, the contractors were awarded the default judgment. That's when the Dominican Republic and INDRHI hired Holland & Knight.
The first step was to overturn the judgment. The Holland & Knight attorneys maintained service was mishandled of service and the default judgment was excusable neglect, claiming no government officials in a managerial capacity knew about the case. Ilene Pabian argued the case, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed.
At trial in 2017, the dispute focused on who breached the contract. The contractors blamed delays and costly changes on the Dominican Republic and INDRHI.
Baldwin and Ramos argued against a government breach. They also maintained the government did not control INDRHI and was not responsible for claims against the agency.
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore ruled the Dominican Republic and INDRHI were separate legal entities and decided only INDRHI owed damages to AIS. The government was cleared of liability with a finding that it didn't terminate the contract.
The $576,000 judgment against the agency was far less than the $30 million claimed against the defendants.
The contractors followed up with a motion to amend the court's findings of fact and conclusions of law, which could have reversed the judgment. Moore denied the motion in August with one procedural exception.
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