The US Supreme Court has declined a petition from American defense contractor Wye Oak Technology, which had petitioned it to review its long-running legal dispute with Iraq.
The case stems from a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in July 2024, overturning a previous decision that had granted Wye Oak more than $120 million in damages against the Republic of Iraq and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.
Wye Oak’s petition for a writ of certiorari, filed on 14th January, 2025, sought to overturn the lower court’s ruling.
In a statement on Monday, the Supreme Court said: “The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.”
The case involved the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), and concerned two legal issues regarding whether a foreign state can be sued in a U.S. court for an alleged breach of contract:
- Iraq argued that Wye Oak’s claim of a circuit split (disagreement among different courts) is incorrect, as no court rejects this approach;
- Iraq also claimed that Wye Oak’s assertion of a circuit split is mistaken, as the Fourth Circuit’s contrary decision was wrong and superseded by a Supreme Court ruling (Sachs, 2015).
Neal Kumar Katyal of Hogan Lovells US LLP represented Wye Oak Technology, while Boaz S. Morag of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP represented the Republic of Iraq.
The original ruling would have reimbursed Wye Oak for alleged unpaid invoices relating to work done for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.
Dale Stoffel, the President of Wye Oak Technology, was killed in mysterious circumstances twenty years ago while attempting to recover the debt.
