The case of the day is In re Application of Ruiz (S.D.N.Y. 2018). In 2017, European and Spanish banking regulators sold Banco Popular Español, a bank they thought failing, to Banco Santander for € 1. Investors in Banco Popular then sued in the EU’s Court of Justice, and some of them also brought investor-state arbitrations against Spain under the Mexico/Spain BIT. Finally, some of the investors sought to join Spanish criminal proceedings against Banco Popular and its former managers. The investors applied to the court under § 1782 for leave to take discovery of Santander (including the Spanish bank itself, which had a US branch, and some US subsidiaries) for use in the foreign proceedings. Although the judge framed the issue as whether the investors had satisfied the first statutory element under § 1782—the requirement that the target “reside” or be “found” in the district—in fact the real issue, in the judge’s view, was constitutional. Would the exercise of jurisdiction over Banco Santander S.A. (the Spanish entity) or Santander Bank N.A. (a national banking association with its headquarters in Delaware) consistent with due process? The court held that discovery from both entities was improper (though it did allow discovery from another US-based Santander entity—an issue I don’t discuss here). (more…)