Cerner Middle East Ltd. v. Belbadi Enterprises LLC

472 P.3d 299, 305 Or. App. 413
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 15, 2020
DocketA166877
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 472 P.3d 299 (Cerner Middle East Ltd. v. Belbadi Enterprises LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cerner Middle East Ltd. v. Belbadi Enterprises LLC, 472 P.3d 299, 305 Or. App. 413 (Or. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

Argued and submitted June 10, 2019, reversed and remanded July 15, petition for review denied November 19, 2020 (367 Or 257)

CERNER MIDDLE EAST LIMITED, a Cayman Islands exempted company, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BELBADI ENTERPRISES LLC, a U.A.E. Limited Liability Company; and Orland Ltd., Defendants-Respondents. Multnomah County Circuit Court 16CV23150; A166877 472 P3d 299

Plaintiff Cerner Middle East Limited appeals a judgment dismissing for lack of personal jurisdiction its action to enforce two guarantees executed by defen- dant Belbadi Enterprises LLC, a limited liability company organized under the laws of the United Arab Emirates, and to attach property in Oregon owned by Belbadi’s Oregon affiliate, defendant Orland, which, plaintiff alleges, Belbadi provided as security for the guarantees. Held: Plaintiff’s complaint and accompa- nying affidavits have alleged sufficient facts to make a prima facie showing that Belbadi and Orland are alter egos, so as to support a piercing of the corporate veils for the purpose of establishing personal jurisdiction over Belbadi through Orland. The trial court therefore erred in granting defendants’ motion to dis- miss. On remand, the trial court will have the opportunity to address in the first instance Belbadi’s contentions regarding forum non conveniens. Reversed and remanded.

Stephen K. Bushong, Judge. (Judgment) Adrienne C. Nelson, Judge. (Order) Warren E. Gluck, New York, argued the cause for appel- lant. Also on the briefs were David J. Elkanich, Garrett S. Garfield, and Holland & Knight LLP. Gary I. Grenley argued the cause for respondents. Also on the brief were Paul H. Trinchero, Eryn Karpinski Hoerster, and Garvey Schubert Barer, P.C. Before Armstrong, Presiding Judge, and Tookey, Judge, and Shorr, Judge. ARMSTRONG, P. J. Reversed and remanded. 414 Cerner Middle East Ltd. v. Belbadi Enterprises LLC

ARMSTRONG, P. J. Plaintiff Cerner Middle East Limited, a medical technology company incorporated and organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands with its primary place of busi- ness in Missouri, appeals a judgment dismissing for lack of jurisdiction its action to enforce two guarantees executed by defendant Belbadi Enterprises LLC, a limited liability com- pany organized under the laws of the United Arab Emirates, and to attach property provided as security for the guaran- tees. We conclude that the trial court erred in dismissing the action and therefore reverse. The dispute in this case centers around whether a court in Oregon has jurisdiction over Belbadi, a foreign company, because of the presence in Oregon of a Belbadi affiliate owned by Belbadi’s wholly owned subsidiary. We draw the relevant facts from the pleadings and affidavits, construing the pleadings and affidavits liberally in favor of jurisdiction and assuming the truth of all well-pleaded alle- gations. O’Neil v. Martin, 258 Or App 819, 828, 312 P3d 538 (2013) (in reviewing a trial court’s grant of a motion to dis- miss for lack of personal jurisdiction, we assume the truth of all well-pleaded allegations in the record and construe the pleadings liberally in support of jurisdiction). Ahmed Saeed Mohammed Al Badi Al Dhaheri (Al Dhaheri), a citizen of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was the sole proprietor of iCapital. Al Dhaheri hap- pens also to be the former Minister of Health of the Abu Dhabi Emirate. iCapital entered into a contract with the Ministry of Health of the UAE for the development of a medical information technology platform for hospitals in the UAE. In July 2008, iCapital, in turn, entered into a contract with plaintiff Cerner, a medical information tech- nology developer,1 to provide the software and services nec- essary for the development of the platform. The contract is known by the parties as the Cerner Business Agreement (CBA).

1 Plaintiff is a subsidiary of Cerner Corporation, a medical services tech- nology company based in Kansas City, Missouri. See Cerner Middle East Ltd. v. Belbadi Enters. LLC, 939 F3d 1009, 1011 (9th Cir 2019). Cite as 305 Or App 413 (2020) 415

Plaintiff embarked on work under the CBA, but iCapital, now reorganized as an LLC,2 defaulted on its obligations to plaintiff. As provided in the CBA, plaintiff requested arbitration of the dispute with iCapital and Al Dhaheri before the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration (ICC). Before an answer had been filed, plaintiff, Al Dhaheri, and iCapital reached a settlement. Al Dhaheri is the sole member of iCapital’s parent, defendant Belbadi Enterprises LLC, a UAE corporation with its principal place of business in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Under the settlement agreement, Al Dhaheri agreed that Belbadi would “irrevocably and unconditionally” guarantee iCapital’s performance under the CBA through two guaran- tees. If iCapital defaulted on its obligations under the CBA or the settlement agreement, Belbadi unconditionally agreed to make payments to plaintiff “to the fullest extent permit- ted by law and until all of the Guaranteed Obligations have been fully performed.’’ Belbadi waived “all rights and bene- fits which might otherwise have been available to [Belbadi] with respect to either or both of the Settlement Agreement and this Guarantee under applicable laws of suretyship and guarantor’s defense generally.”3 It is undisputed that Belbadi agreed to securitize the guarantees. Belbadi, through other companies, owns Willamette Enterprises, Ltd., a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Willamette Enterprises, Ltd., owns Vandevco Limited, which, through its subsidiaries (the “VanSubs”),

2 iCapital’s members are Ahmed Saeed Al Badi Al Dhaheri and his son, Mohamed Al Badi Al Dhaheri, both citizens of the UAE. 3 The guarantees also provide, “Each Party hereby expressly consents to the jurisdiction of a competent court in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi for the adjudication of any dispute [related to the guarantees].” The trial court determined that that provision means that jurisdiction of the dispute on the guarantees is exclusively in the UAE. The parties now agree that the provision only provides consent to jurisdiction in the UAE but does not provide for exclusive jurisdiction in the UAE and does not preclude jurisdiction in the courts of other forums. Defendants none- theless assert that the trial court’s ruling dismissing the action on jurisdictional grounds was correct for other reasons asserted on appeal. Plaintiff does not dis- pute that the alternative grounds for affirmance were argued by the parties at trial and should be addressed on appeal. See State v. Lovaina-Burmadez, 257 Or App 1, 14, 303 P3d 988, rev den, 354 Or 148 (2013) (concerning alternative bases to affirm that were argued but not decided in the trial court). 416 Cerner Middle East Ltd. v. Belbadi Enterprises LLC

owns Vancouvercenter, a multiuse residential and commer- cial development in Vancouver, Washington. Willamette Enterprises, Ltd. also owns Orland Ltd., an Oregon corporation formed in 1996. In 1999, Orland reg- istered “Vancouvercenter” as an assumed business name in Oregon. But Orland’s assets consist only of six residential properties in Tigard, Oregon, that Orland acquired in 1996 and 1997 for the purpose of further development. Because Orland is nominally owned by Willamette Enterprises, Ltd., which, in turn, is ultimately owned by Belbadi, Belbadi is Orland’s parent, just as Belbadi is Vandevco’s parent. Within months of the settlement agreement, iCapital defaulted on its obligations. Plaintiff then pursued arbitration with the ICC, which entered an award of over $62 million for plaintiff and against iCapital, and jointly and severally against Al Dhaheri, who, the ICC determined, was iCapital’s alter ego. Neither iCapital nor Al Dhaheri has paid anything toward the arbitration award.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
472 P.3d 299, 305 Or. App. 413, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cerner-middle-east-ltd-v-belbadi-enterprises-llc-orctapp-2020.