Trade Finance Litigation
ZEK routinely handles complex, multinational
litigation involving international trade transactions, including
disputes arising from letters of credit, forfaiting and other
methods of financing. We have represented not only foreign
and domestic financial institutions in such disputes, but
also beneficiaries of letters of credit as well as international
merchants and traders. Forming one of the Firm's core practice
areas, ZEK is proud of the trade finance litigation expertise
which it delivers to its clients; and equally proud of the
favorable results ZEK has achieved on their behalf.
ZEK regularly appears on behalf of its clients litigating
such cases in federal and state courts at the trial and appellate
level. ZEK also has counseled clients in trade finance disputes
in arbitration and mediation proceedings and in other alternate
dispute resolution environments.
For example, ZEK successfully represented a foreign government
whose Embassy was a beneficiary of a letter of credit, in
an action against the issuer. The case was tried in the Commercial
Part of the New York State Supreme Court before a jury and
the jury's verdict was upheld in its entirety on appeal.
ZEK also represented a major financial institution in an action
involving a $7.5 million dispute against a bank arising from
a forfaiting transaction. In the action against the bank,
we obtained a pre-judgment writ of attachment and levied upon
approximately $4.5 million. In a display of ZEK's versatility,
when the bank was placed into insolvency proceedings in the
Kingdom of Jordan, and the Jordanian Liquidator brought ancillary
bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to stay
all U.S. litigation, ZEK obtained summary judgment dismissing
the Bankruptcy Code Section 304 petition, a rarely achieved
result in this area of the law.
We also recently prevailed on behalf of an African bank in
a letter of credit dispute in the United States District Court
for the Southern District of New York, which involved the
international trade of Ethiopian coffee beans.
The Appellate Division, First Department recently upheld a
summary judgment award in favor of our bank client, holding
that the bank had properly dishonored a drawing under its
letter of credit.
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