First National City Bank v. Banco Para El Comercio Exterior De Cuba

Citation103 S.Ct. 2591,77 L.Ed.2d 46,462 U.S. 611
Decision Date17 June 1983
Docket NumberNo. 81-984,81-984
PartiesFIRST NATIONAL CITY BANK, Petitioner v. BANCO PARA EL COMERCIO EXTERIOR DE CUBA
CourtUnited States Supreme Court
Syllabus

In 1960, the Cuban Government established respondent to serve as an official autonomous credit institution for foreign trade with full juridical capacity of its own. Respondent sought to collect on a letter of credit issued by petitioner bank in respondent's favor in support of a contract for delivery of Cuban sugar to a buyer in the United States. Shortly thereafter, all of petitioner's assets in Cuba were seized and nationalized by the Cuban Government. When respondent brought suit on the letter of credit in Federal District Court, petitioner counterclaimed, asserting a right to set off the value of its seized Cuban assets. After the suit was brought but before petitioner filed its counterclaim, respondent was dissolved and its capital was split between Banco Nacional, Cuba's central bank, and certain foreign trade enterprises or houses of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade. Rejecting respondent's contention that its separate juridical status shielded it from liability for the acts of the Cuban Government, the District Court held that since the value of petitioner's Cuban assets exceeded respondent's claim, the setoff could be granted in petitioner's favor, and therefore dismissed the complaint. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that respondent w § not an alter ego of the Cuban Government for the purpose of petitioner's counterclaim.

Held: Under principles of equity common to international law and federal common law, petitioner may apply the claimed setoff, notwithstanding the fact that respondent was established as a separate juridical entity. Pp.619-633.

(a) The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 does not control the determination of whether petitioner may apply the setoff. That Act was not intended to affect the substantive law determining the liability of a foreign state or instrumentality, or the attribution of liability among such instrumentalities. Pp. 619-621.

(b) Duly created instrumentalities of a foreign state are to be accorded a presumption of independent status. This presumption may be overcome, however, where giving effect to the corporate form would permit a foreign state to be the sole beneficiary of a claim pursued in United States courts while escaping liability to the opposing party imposed by international law. Pp. 623-630.

(c) Thus, here, giving effect to respondent's juridical status, even though it has long been dissolved, would permit the real beneficiary of such an action, the Cuban Government, to obtain relief in our courts that it could not obtain in its own right without waiving its sovereign immunity and answering for the seizure of petitioner's assets in violation of international law. The corporate form will not be blindly adhered to where doing so would cause such an injustice. Having dissolved respondent and transferred its assets to entities that may be held liable on petitioner's counterclaim, Cuba cannot escape liability for acts in violation of international law simply by retransferring assets to separate juridical entities. To hold otherwise would permit governments to avoid the requirements of international law simply by creating juridical entities whenever the need arises. Pp. 630-633.

658 F.2d 913 (2nd Cir.1981), reversed and remanded.

Henry Harfield, New York City, for petitioner.

Richard G. Wilkins, Washington, D.C., for the U.S., as amicus curiae, pro hac vice, by special leave of Court.

Michael Krinsky, New York City, for respondent.

Justice O'CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.

In 1960 the Government of the Republic of Cuba established respondent Banco Para El Comercio Exterior de Cuba (Bancec) to serve as "[a]n official autonomous credit institution for foreign trade . . . with full juridical capacity . . . of its own. . . ." Law No. 793, Art. 1 (1960), App. to Pet. for Cert. 2d. In September 1960 Bancec sought to collect on a letter of credit issued by petitioner First National City Bank (now Citibank) in its favor in support of a contract for delivery of Cuban sugar to a buyer in the United States. Within days after Citibank received the request for collection, all of its assets in Cuba were seized and nationalized by the Cuban Government. When Bancec brought suit on the letter of credit in United States District Court, Citibank counterclaimed, asserting a right to set off the value of its seized Cuban assets. The question before us is whether Citibank may obtain such a setoff, notwithstanding the fact that Bancec was established as a separate juridical entity. Applying principles of equity common to international law and federal common law, we conclude that Citibank may apply a setoff.

I

Resolution of the question presented by this case requires us to describe in some detail the events giving rise to the current controversy.

Bancec was established by Law No. 793, of April 25, 1960, as the legal successor to the Banco Cubano del Comercio Exterior (Cuban Foreign Trade Bank), a trading bank established by the Cuban Government in 1954 and jointly owned by the Government and private banks. Law No. 793 contains detailed "By-laws" specifying Bancec's purpose, structure, and administration. Bancec's stated purpose was "to contribute to, and collaborate with, the international trade policy of the Government and the application of the measures concerning foreign trade adopted by the 'Banco Nacional de Cuba,' " Cuba's central bank (Banco Nacional). Art. 1 No. VIII, App. to Pet. for Cert. 4d. Bancec was empowered to act as the Cuban Government's exclusive agent in foreign trade. The Government supplied all of its capital and owned all of its stock. The General Treasury of the Republic received all of Bancec's profits, after deduction of amounts for capital reserves. A Governing Board consisting of delegates from Cuban governmental ministries governed and managed Bancec. Its president was Ernesto Che Guevara, who also was Minister of State and president of Banco Nacional. A General Manager appointed by the Governing Board was charged with directing Bancec's day-to-day operations in a manner consistent with its enabling statute.

In contracts signed on August 12, 1960, Bancec agreed to purchase a quantity of sugar from El Institutio Nacional de Reforma Agraria (INRA), an instrumentality of the Cuban Government which owned and operated Cuba's nationalized sugar industry, and to sell it to the Cuban Canadian Sugar Company. The latter sale agreement was supported by an irrevocable letter of credit in favor of Bancec issued by Citibank on August 18, 1960, which Bancec assigned to Banco Nacional for collection.

Meanwhile, in July 1960 the Cuban Government enacted Law No. 851, which provided for the nationalization of the Cuban properties of United States citizens. By Resolution No. 2 of September 17, 1960, the Government ordered that all of the Cuban property of three United States banks, including Citibank, be nationalized through forced expropriation. The "Bank Nationalization Law," Law No. 891, of October 13, 1960, declared that the banking function could be carried on only by instrumentalities created by the State, and ordered Banco Nacional to effect the nationalization.

On or about September 15, 1960, before the banks were nationalized, Bancec's draft was presented to Citibank for payment by Banco Nacional. The amount sought was $193,280.30 for sugar delivered at Pascagoula, Mississippi. On September 20, 1960, after its branches were nationalized Citibank credited the requested amount to Banco Nacional's account and applied the balance in Banco Nacional's account as a setoff against the value of its Cuban branches.

On February 1, 1961, Bancec brought this diversity action to recover on the letter of credit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

On February 23, 1961, by Law No. 930, Bancec was dissolved and its capital was split between Banco Nacional and "the foreign trade enterprises or houses of the Ministry of Foreign Trade," which was established by Law No. 934 the same day.1 App. to Pet. for Cert. 16d. All of Bancec's rights, claims, and assets "peculiar to the banking business" were vested in Banco Nacional, which also succeeded to its banking obligations. Ibid. All of Bancec's "trading functions" were to be assumed by "the foreign trade enterprises or houses of the Ministry of Foreign Trade." By Resolution No. 1, dated March 1, 1961, the Ministry of Foreign Trade created Empresa Cubana de Exportaciones (Cuban Enterprise for Exports) (Empresa), which was empowered to conduct all commercial export transactions formerly conducted by Bancec "remaining subrogated in the rights and obligations of said bank [Bancec] as regards the commercial export activities." App. to Pet. for Cert. 26d. Three hundred thousand of the two million pesos distributed to the Ministry of Foreign Trade when Bancec was dissolved were assigned to Empresa. Id., at 27d. By Resolution No. 102, dated December 31, 1961, and Resolution No. 1, dated January 1, 1962, Empresa was dissolved and Bancec's rights relating to foreign commerce in sugar were assigned to Empresa Cu- bana Exportadora de Azucar y sus Derivados (C ba Zucar), a state trading company, which is apparently still in existence.

On March 8, 1961, after Bancec had been dissolved, Citibank filed its answer, which sought a setoff for the value of its seized branches, not an affirmative recovery of damages.2 On July 7, 1961, Bancec filed a stipulation signed by the parties stating that Bancec had been dissolved and that its claim had been transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and agreeing that the Republic of Cuba may be substituted as plaintiff. The District Court approved the stipulation, but no amended complaint was filed.

Apparently the case lay dormant until May...

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