Case of the Day: Dow Chemical Co. v. Daniel

The case of the day is Dow Chemical Co. v. Daniel (E.D. Mich. 2014). Pablo Daniel Segismun Edelstein (the court calls him Edelstein, though the case is captioned Daniel) was a former employee of Dow. After he left the company, he sued Dow in Brazil on a wage and hour claim. Dow then sued Edelstein in the United States for breach of contract, fraudulent misrepresentation, and unjust enrichment. Edelstein moved to dismiss for insufficient service of process.
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Letters Blogatory’s Second FOIA Request

Readers, let’s recap. In August 2011, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the State Department, trying to get a handle on lobbying that Chevron or others may have done on Ecuador issues. The idea was to see whether Chevron was lobbying the State Department as effectively as it was lobbying, say, the U.S. Trade Representative, which was a particularly interesting question because the State Department’s guidance on Ecuador, and specifically on Ecuador’s judiciary, was relevant to the RICO litigation between Chevron and Donziger.
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Case of the Day: Global Material Technologies v. Dazheng Metal Fibre Co.

The case of the day is Global Material Technologies, Inc. v. Dazheng Metal Fibre Co. (N.D. Ill. 2014). GMT was in the business of producing and selling metallic wool products. It alleged that it owned a 25% stake in Dazheng, a Chinese firm which was in the same business. GMT ultimately stopped producing some products in its own facilities and instead outsourced production to Dazheng. At some point, Dazheng, according to GMT’s allegations, “refused to timely manufacture certain fibers and consumer products for GMT, disregarded GMT’s purchase orders, and shipped more than 750,000 pounds of rusted metallic fibers to GMT’s customers.” GMT sued Dazheng in the People’s Court of Jinwan District, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province for breach of contract. That court dismissed the claim, and the Intermediate Court affirmed.
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Case of the Day: Elobied v. Baylock

The case of the day is Elobied v. Baylock (E.D. Pa. 2014). Hashim Elobied sued Trescott Baylock for breach of an oral contract for the purchase and sale of a Bentley Continental GT. Let me just pause to marvel at an oral contract for the purchase of a Bentley. I’m not sure which law applies to the substance of this case, but I hope the governing law doesn’t have the Statute of Frauds!
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Thoughts on Greg Shill’s Judgment Arbitrage

Paul Revere
Happy Patriot’s Day!
Greg Shill, now a visiting assistant professor of law at the University of Denver and formerly on the Chevron team at Gibson Dunn, has written a very interesting paper, Ending Judgment Arbitrage: Jurisdictional Competition and the Enforcement of Foreign Money Judgments in the United States, 54 Harv. J. Int’l L. 459 (2013). The paper has recently been covered on Opinio Juris and on Greg’s own blog, Just Shilling (catchy title!)
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