Webuild v. WSP USA Inc., No. 23-73 (2d Cir. 2024)

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Webuild S.P.A., an Italian investment company, formed a consortium with other companies to work on the Panama Canal expansion project. After the project's completion, Webuild initiated an arbitration against Panama under the ICSID, alleging that Panama breached its obligations under a bilateral investment treaty by providing incomplete information and making unfair financial demands. Webuild sought discovery from WSP USA, which had acquired the project's engineering consultant, Parsons Brinkerhoff.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York initially granted Webuild's ex parte application for discovery under 28 U.S.C. § 1782. However, following the Supreme Court's decision in ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd., which limited § 1782 to governmental or intergovernmental tribunals, the district court vacated its order and quashed the subpoena. The court concluded that the ICSID arbitration tribunal did not qualify as a governmental or intergovernmental entity under § 1782.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reviewed the district court's decision de novo. The appellate court affirmed the lower court's ruling, agreeing that the ICSID tribunal did not exercise governmental authority as required by § 1782. The court noted that the tribunal was formed specifically for the arbitration, funded by the parties, and its members had no official governmental affiliation. Thus, the ICSID tribunal did not meet the criteria established by the Supreme Court in ZF Automotive for a "foreign or international tribunal" under § 1782.

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23-73 Webuild v. WSP USA Inc. 1 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 2 FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT 3 ------ 4 August Term, 2023 5 (Argued: November 21, 2023 6 Decided: July 19, 2024) Docket No. 23-73 7 _____________________________________________________ 8 9 WEBUILD S.P.A., 10 11 Applicant-Appellant, SACYR S.A., Applicant, 12 - v. - 13 14 WSP USA Inc., 15 16 17 REPUBLIC OF PANAMA, Respondent-Appellee, Intervenor-Appellee.* _____________________________________________________ * The Clerk of Court is instructed to amend the official caption to conform with the above. 1 Before: KEARSE, CALABRESI, and NATHAN, Circuit Judges. 2 Appeal from a December 19, 2022 order of the United States District Court 3 for the Southern District of New York, Lewis A. Kaplan, Judge, (1) vacating a May 19, 4 2022 order that granted the ex parte application of applicant-appellant Webuild S.P.A. 5 for an order under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 allowing it to obtain discovery from respondent 6 WSP USA for use in an international arbitration proceeding conducted under the 7 auspices of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes ("ICSID"), 8 and (2) quashing the subpoena served by Webuild on WSP. The December 19, 2022 9 order granted motions by WSP USA and intervenor Republic of Panama to vacate the 10 May 2022 order and quash Webuild's subpoena in light of (A) the Supreme Court's June 11 2022 ruling in ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd., 596 U.S. 619 (2022), that § 1782 12 authorizes discovery only for proceedings before entities that exercise governmental or 13 intergovernmental authority, and (B) the district court's conclusion that an ICSID 14 arbitration tribunal is not such an entity. See In re WEBUILD S.P.A., No. 22-mc-140, 2022 15 WL 17807321 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 19, 2022). On appeal, Webuild contends that the district 16 court erred in failing to find that ICSID arbitration tribunals are sufficiently imbued with 17 governmental authority to be within the scope of § 1782. We find no error in the 18 December 19, 2022 Order. 19 Affirmed. -2- 1 2 3 HANSEL PHAM, Washington, D.C. (Carolyn B. Lamm, Kristen M. Young, Nicolle E. Kownacki, White & Case, Washington, D.C., on the brief), for Applicant-Appellant. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 SAMUEL LONERGAN, New York, New York (Mélida N. Hodgson, Mitchell R. Stern, Nathan A. King, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, New York, New York; Eli Whitney Debevoise II, Sally L. Pei, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, Washington, D.C., on the brief, for IntervenorAppellee; Raymond DeLuca, Jeffery Mullen, Cozen O'Connor, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Rachel B. Soloman, Cozen O'Connor, New York, New York, on the brief, for Respondent-Appellee), for Appellees. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 URJA MITTAL, Appellate Staff Attorney, Washington, D.C. (Bryan M. Boynton, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Sharon Swingle, Appellate Staff Attorney, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., Damian Williams, United States Attorney, on the brief) for amicus curiae United States of America in support of affirmance. 20 PER CURIAM: 21 Applicant-appellant Webuild S.P.A. ("Webuild") appeals from a December 22 19, 2022 order ("December 2022 Order") of the United States District Court for the 23 Southern District of New York, Lewis A. Kaplan, Judge, (1) vacating a May 19, 2022 order 24 ("May 2022 Order") that granted the ex parte application of Webuild for an order under 25 28 U.S.C. § 1782 allowing it to obtain discovery from respondent WSP USA ("WSP") for 26 use in an international arbitration proceeding conducted under the auspices of the -3- 1 International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes ("ICSID" or the "Centre"), 2 and (2) quashing the subpoena served by Webuild on WSP. The December 2022 Order 3 granted motions by WSP and intervenor Republic of Panama ("Panama") to vacate the 4 May 2022 order and quash the subpoena in light of (A) the Supreme Court's June 2022 5 ruling in ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd., 596 U.S. 619 (2022) ("ZF Automotive"), 6 that § 1782 authorizes discovery orders only for use in proceedings before foreign or 7 international tribunals that exercise governmental or intergovernmental authority, and 8 (B) the district court's conclusion that an ICSID arbitration tribunal is not such an entity. 9 On appeal, Webuild contends that ICSID tribunals are sufficiently imbued with 10 governmental authority to be within the scope of § 1782. Finding no error in the district 11 court's December 2022 Order, we affirm. 12 I. BACKGROUND 13 As did the district court in its December 2022 Order, we assume familiarity 14 with the parties' "pleadings and the undisputed facts therein," In re WEBUILD S.P.A., 15 No. 22-mc-140, 2022 WL 17807321, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 19, 2022), which we summarize 16 below. For purposes of clarity, we note that in the ICSID rules governing arbitrations, 17 "Panel of Arbitrators" refers to the roster of qualified persons designated by ICSID -4- 1 Member States (up to four per Member State, from any state), plus 10 such persons 2 (from 10 States) designated by the ICSID Chairman, who are willing to serve as 3 arbitrators (see ICSID Convention, Regulations & Rules ("ICSID Rules") Ch. I, sec. 4). 4 The ICSID panel of arbitrators chosen or appointed to decide a dispute is called the 5 "Arbitral Tribunal" or "Tribunal." (Id. Ch. IV, sec. 2.) 6 A. The Present Proceeding and the District Court's May 2022 Order 7 Webuild, formerly known as Salini Impregilo S.p.A., is an Italian 8 investment company that specializes in infrastructure projects. Webuild and three other 9 companies, including the Spanish company Sacyr Vallehermoso S.A. ("Sacyr"), formed 10 the consortium Grupos Unidos por el Canal S.A. ("GUPC")--a Panamanian project 11 company--to facilitate investment in a proposed expansion of the Panama Canal, the 12 "Third Set of Locks Project" (or the "Project"). The Project contract was awarded to 13 GUPC by the Panama Canal Authority (Autoridad del Canal de Panamá, or "ACP") in 14 2009. Construction was completed in 2016. 15 In 2020, Webuild initiated an ICSID arbitration against Panama, as allowed 16 by a bilateral investment treaty (or "BIT") between Panama and Italy, the Agreement 17 Between the Republic of Panama and the Italian Republic on the Promotion and 18 Protection of Investments ("Panama-Italy BIT"). Webuild alleged that Panama breached -5- 1 its obligations under the Panama-Italy BIT, international law, and Panamanian law, 2 principally by ACP's failure to provide the consortium with complete and accurate 3 information during the bidding and procurement processes for the Third Set of Locks 4 Project, and by ACP's unfair demands that Webuild make contributions (without 5 reimbursement) to finance and pay for the Project. For use in its ICSID arbitration 6 against Panama, Webuild's ex parte application in the present proceeding sought 7 authorization for discovery from WSP as to information provided to ACP during the 8 Project by ACP's engineering consultant Parsons Brinkerhoff, a firm that, during the 9 course of the Project, was acquired by WSP. Sacyr, originally a co-applicant in the 10 present proceeding for § 1782 discovery from WSP, had made similar allegations in its 11 own international arbitration proceeding against Panama, commenced in 2018 pursuant 12 to a bilateral investment treaty between Panama and Spain. 13 The district court initially, in its May 2022 Order, granted the ex parte 14 applications of Webuild and Sacyr. Thereafter, Panama moved to intervene, to vacate 15 the May 2022 Order, and to quash the subpoena served on WSP; the Supreme Court 16 issued its decision in ZF Automotive (see Part II.A. below); WSP moved to have the May 17 2022 Order vacated and the subpoena quashed; and Sacyr voluntarily withdrew its 18 request for § 1782 discovery, see December 2022 Order, 2022 WL 17807321, at *1 n.1. -6- 1 B. The District Court's Post-ZF Automotive December 2022 Order 2 In ZF Automotive, the Supreme Court considered the authorization in § 1782 3 for a district court to order discovery from a person within its district for use in a 4 "foreign or international tribunal," 28 U.S.C. § 1782(a). As discussed more fully in Part 5 II.A. below, the Court considered several factors, such as a tribunal's creation, funding, 6 operations, and transparency, and concluded that § 1782's authorization for discovery 7 orders applies only to proceedings before foreign or international adjudicative entities 8 that exercise governmental authority. 9 In light of that ruling and the factors considered by the ZF Automotive 10 Court, the district court granted the motions of Panama and WSP to vacate the May 2022 11 Order and quash Webuild's subpoena to WSP. The district court found principally that 12 the ICSID "arbitration panel at issue here"--"the 'Webuild Tribunal,'" December 2022 13 Order, 2022 WL 17807321, at *1--is neither a pre-existing entity nor one created by the 14 Panama-Italy BIT, but rather is a Tribunal specially formed following Webuild's request 15 for arbitration, id. at *1-*2; that the Webuild Tribunal members were chosen by the 16 parties and had no official affiliation with Italy, Panama, or any other governmental or 17 intergovernmental entity, id. at *2; and that the Webuild Tribunal does not receive any 18 "government funding" but instead, in accordance with "the ICSID arbitration rules," is -7- 1 "funded jointly by the parties," id. (internal quotation marks omitted). The court 2 concluded that 3 4 5 6 7 8 Italy and Panama did not intend to imbue the [Webuild Tribunal] with governmental authority, and therefore the Webuild Tribunal does not constitute a "foreign or international tribunal" within the meaning of Section 1782. Id. at *3. II. DISCUSSION 9 On appeal, Webuild contends that ICSID Arbitral Tribunals are 10 "quintessential 'international tribunals'" with "numerous features" that make "clear that 11 [they] are imbued with governmental authority." (Webuild brief on appeal at 1.) As 12 discussed in Part II.B. below, Webuild points out that ICSID itself is a permanent 13 institution, having been established by the International Convention on the Settlement 14 of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the "ICSID 15 Convention" or "Convention"), and that the Convention regulates various aspects of 16 ICSID's operations with regard to arbitrations. 17 Reviewing de novo the district court's ruling that, in light of the Supreme 18 Court's decision and reasoning in ZF Automotive, the Webuild Tribunal does not qualify -8- 1 as a "foreign or international tribunal" as that term is used in § 1782, we conclude that 2 Webuild's contentions are without merit. 3 A. The Supreme Court's Decision in ZF Automotive 4 Section 1782(a) of Title 28 provides, in pertinent part, as follows: 5 6 7 8 9 The district court of the district in which a person resides or is found may order him to give his testimony or statement or to produce a document or other thing for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal, including criminal investigations conducted before formal accusation. 10 28 U.S.C. 1782(a). In ZF Automotive, in which the Supreme Court considered two cases 11 involving applications for § 1782 discovery to be used in foreign arbitration proceedings, 12 the Court began by exploring whether Congress intended "foreign or international 13 tribunal" to include foreign private--i.e., non-governmental--adjudicative bodies. 14 In fathoming the meaning of "foreign or international tribunal" in that 15 section, the Court noted, inter alia, that "the animating purpose of § 1782 is comity," and 16 that "[p]ermitting federal courts to assist foreign and international governmental bodies 17 promotes respect for foreign governments and encourages reciprocal assistance." ZF 18 Automotive, 596 U.S. at 632. The Court found it "difficult to see how enlisting district 19 courts to help private bodies would serve" the interests of comity and respect. Id. -9- 1 The Court also noted that in the United States, "[a]rbitrators derive their 2 authority to resolve disputes only because the parties have agreed in advance to submit 3 such grievances to arbitration," id. at 636 (internal quotation marks omitted), and that 4 under the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq., the discovery allowed in domestic 5 arbitrations is more circumscribed than what can be authorized under § 1782 for foreign 6 or international proceedings, see ZF Automotive, 596 U.S. at 632. Thus, construing § 1782 7 to authorize discovery in proceedings before private foreign or international bodies 8 would be incongruous. See id. at 633 ("[i]t's hard to conjure a rationale for giving parties 9 to private foreign arbitrations such broad access to federal-court discovery assistance in 10 the United States while precluding such discovery assistance for litigants in domestic 11 arbitrations" (internal quotation marks omitted)). 12 The Supreme Court concluded that "§ 1782 requires a 'foreign or 13 international tribunal' to be governmental or intergovernmental." Id. "[O]nly a 14 governmental or intergovernmental adjudicative body constitutes a 'foreign or 15 international tribunal' under § 1782. Such bodies are those that exercise governmental 16 authority conferred by one nation or multiple nations." Id. at 638. 17 Of the two cases at issue in ZF Automotive, the one more similar to the 18 present case involved a § 1782 application for discovery to be used in an ad hoc 19 arbitration between Lithuania and a Russian investor's assignee (the "Investor") with - 10 - 1 respect to a failed Lithuanian bank. The arbitration was initiated by the Investor as 2 permitted by a bilateral investment treaty between Lithuania and Russia, and was to be 3 conducted in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission 4 on International Trade Law ("UNCITRAL Rules"). Id. at 625-26. In determining whether 5 the UNCITRAL panel qualified as a foreign or international tribunal within the meaning 6 of § 1782, the Court considered a number of factors. 7 The Court noted that the mere fact that a BIT allows an investor to opt for 8 an ad hoc arbitration against a sovereign state does not mean that the ensuing arbitration 9 panel has any governmental authority. "[A] body does not possess governmental 10 authority just because nations agree in a treaty to submit to arbitration before it. The 11 relevant question is whether the nations intended that the ad hoc panel exercise 12 governmental authority." Id. at 637. The Court found no such intent indicated in the 13 Russia-Lithuania BIT. 14 It found that the BIT itself did not create the UNCITRAL panel. In the 15 treaty, each of the two states agreed to submit to an ad hoc arbitration "if an investor 16 chose it." Id. at 636 (emphasis added). Further, the options that the BIT offered to 17 disappointed investors included "[a] competent court or court of arbitration of the 18 Contracting Party," thereby giving them "the choice of bringing their disputes before a 19 pre-existing governmental body." Id. at 634-35 (internal quotation marks omitted). - 11 - 1 Thus, the ad hoc UNCITRAL arbitration panel came into existence--and had authority 2 to resolve the dispute before it--"because Lithuania and the [Investor] consented to the 3 arbitration, not because Russia and Lithuania clothed the panel with governmental 4 authority." Id. at 636. 5 In addition, the Court found the ad hoc UNCITRAL panel distinguishable 6 from governmental adjudicative bodies by the UNCITRAL rules allowing the parties to 7 choose the arbitrators for their arbitration, and by the facts that the arbitration panel 8 members had no official affiliation with any governmental or intergovernmental entity, 9 that the panel received no funding from a government, and that the panel could make 10 its award "public only with the consent of both parties," id. at 635 (internal quotation 11 marks omitted). 12 B. Comparisons between UNCITRAL and ICSID 13 As indicated in Part I.B. above, the district court found that the ICSID rules 14 governing Arbitral Tribunals were not significantly different from those of UNCITRAL 15 that were discussed by the Supreme Court in ZF Automotive. Webuild contends that this 16 was error, arguing that ICSID Tribunals have features showing that they are "imbued 17 with governmental authority." (Webuild brief on appeal at 1, 2, 13.) Webuild points out, 18 inter alia, that ICSID itself is a permanent institution, established by the ICSID - 12 - 1 Convention; that the ICSID Convention regulates the formation of the Panel of 2 Arbitrators and the formation and operations of Arbitral Tribunals; that states that have 3 ratified the Convention (i.e., the "Member States") make and amend ICSID rules that 4 govern arbitrations; and that the Convention requires ICSID to maintain an official Panel 5 of Arbitrators comprising persons designated by ICSID Member States, a roster from 6 which arbitrators will be appointed by ICSID if the parties who have chosen an ICSID 7 arbitration fail to select their arbitrators. (See id. at 23-37.) We are not persuaded. 8 These arguments by Webuild focus principally on ICSID in general or on 9 its overall roster of persons who could become members of a given Arbitral Tribunal if 10 the parties to the arbitration fail to make their own selections. Webuild argues, for 11 example, that because sovereign states help to fund the ICSID Centre, there is a higher 12 level of governmental involvement in ICSID tribunals. (See Webuild brief on appeal 37.) 13 This argument conflates the Centre with the Webuild Tribunal. But funding for ICSID 14 does not fund the Tribunal, directly or indirectly: the Webuild Tribunal is instead 15 funded through advances on arbitrator fees and expenses paid by the parties. 16 Finally, Webuild argues that the ICSID Convention's unique post-award 17 procedures (both through annulment and enforcement mechanisms) distinguish the 18 Webuild Tribunal as an international tribunal. (See Webuild brief on appeal 40.) For 19 example, Webuild claims that the heightened finality accorded to tribunal awards under - 13 - 1 the Convention renders ICSID tribunals analogous to national courts of Member States. 2 We are not persuaded, however, that the intent to imbue tribunals with governmental 3 authority follows from Convention procedures that accord awards with finality. Rather, 4 these procedures merely facilitate the enforcement of ICSID awards. Nor do we find 5 relevant the Convention's annulment procedures, which grant ICSID "Annulment 6 Committees" the authority to annul ICSID awards upon a party's request. Here again, 7 Webuild has shown neither that annulment is an exercise of governmental authority nor 8 that the existence of this post-award ICSID procedure is proof that the Webuild Tribunal 9 is itself imbued with governmental authority. 10 Along similar lines, Webuild argues that because the ICSID Chairman may 11 appoint arbitrators from an ICSID-maintained Panel of Arbitrators to an Arbitral 12 Tribunal when parties to an arbitration cannot agree on panel members or a presiding 13 arbitrator, ICSID plays a more significant role in the composition of panels than did the 14 panels considered in ZF Automotive. (See Webuild brief on appeal 35-36.) But that 15 possibility has no relevance to this case, as the parties agreed on the arbitrators and the 16 Chairman did not appoint any member of the Webuild Tribunal. 17 As described above, the characteristics of UNCITRAL that the 18 ZF Automotive Court found insufficient to give the ad hoc arbitration panel at issue there 19 a governmental character are virtually the same as those of Webuild's ICSID Tribunal. - 14 - 1 Seeing no principled basis for distinguishing this case from ZF Automotive, we conclude 2 that § 1782 discovery is not authorized for Webuild's ICSID arbitration substantially for 3 the reasons stated by the district court in its December 2022 Order. 4 5 6 7 CONCLUSION We have considered all of Webuild's arguments on this appeal and have found them to be without merit. The December 2022 Order is affirmed. - 15 -

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