User:AHeneen/sandbox/Venezuela v. Helmerich & Payne International

Venezuela v. Helmerich & Payne International is a U.S. court case relating to Venezuela's expropriation of oil rigs owned by Helmerich & Payne International's Venezuelan subsidiary that is currently on appeal to the United States Supreme Court, which granted certiorari in June 2016 for the court's next term beginning in October 2016.

The Supreme Court has not decided whether to grant certiorari to an appeal by Helmerich & Payne International from the same judgment.

Supreme Court petitions for certiorari

On October 5, Venezuela submitted a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court on three questions:

1. Whether, for purposes of determining if a plaintiff has pleaded that a foreign state has taken property "in violation of international law," the FSIA recognizes a discrimination exception to the domestic-takings rule, which holds that a foreign sovereign's taking of the property of its own national is not a violation of international law.
2. Whether, for purposes of determining if a plaintiff has pleaded that "rights in property taken in violation of international law are in issue," the FSIA allows a shareholder to claim property rights in the assets of a still-existing corporation.
3. Whether the pleading standard for alleging that a case falls within the FSIA's expropriation exception is more demanding than the standard for pleading jurisdiction under the federal-question statute, which allows a jurisdictional dismissal only if the federal claim is wholly insubstantial and frivolous.

On November 25, Helmerich & Payne International submitted a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court on two questions:

1. Whether, under the third clause of the commercial activity exception, a breach-of-contract action is "based...upon" any act necessary to establish an element of the claim, including acts of contract formation or performance, or solely those acts that breached the contract.
2. Whether, under Republic of Argentina v. Weltover, 504 U.S. 607 (1992), a breaching party's failure to make contractually required payments in the United States causes a "direct effect" in the United States triggering the commercial activity exception where the parties' expectations and course of dealing have established the United States as the plae of payment, or only where payment in the United States is unconditionally required by contract.

On June 28, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to the third question presented by the petition. The Supreme Court has not granted or denied certiorari to the certiorari petition of Helmerich & Payne International. The court is on summer recess until its next conference on September 28.