Butler Snow recently secured a significant victory in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The firm represents a client in connection with litigation in Issaquena County, Miss., seeking specific performance of a multi-million-dollar contract to purchase a large tract of Mississippi Delta farmland from a German entity.
During the pendency of that case, the German entity instituted litigation in Germany seeking a declaratory judgment related to the Mississippi litigation. Butler Snow was not involved in the German proceedings, but the German court issued a declaratory judgment and ordered our client to pay significant attorneys’ fees.
While Butler Snow was trying the underlying case in Issaquena Chancery Court, the opposing party filed suit in United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi seeking to enforce the German judgment and collect the fees from our client.
After a compelling argument by Butler Snow, Chief District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr. granted our motion for judgment on the pleadings and declined to enforce the German judgment. The decision was affirmed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that the German judgment was not entitled to comity.
Members of the Butler Snow team included John C. Henegan, Paul M. Ellis, Lee Davis Thames, Benjamin M. Watson and Luther T. Munford.
