Guevara v. Republic of Peru

608 F.3d 1297, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 12483, 2010 WL 2426029
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJune 18, 2010
Docket08-17213
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 608 F.3d 1297 (Guevara v. Republic of Peru) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Guevara v. Republic of Peru, 608 F.3d 1297, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 12483, 2010 WL 2426029 (11th Cir. 2010).

Opinions

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

The Republic of Peru, two of its ministries, and two of its government officials (collectively “Peru”) appeal the district court’s award of summary judgment to Jose Guevara on Guevara’s claim that Peru owed him $5 million in reward money for information that led to the arrest of Peru’s former spy chief, Vladimiro Lenin Montesinos Torres (“Montesinos”). Peru contends that the district court should have recognized its sovereign immunity and therefore dismissed Guevara’s claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Luis Alfredo Percovich appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to intervene in the case (after the court granted Guevara’s motion for summary judgment but prior to its entry of final judgment) for the purpose of claiming the award.1 We agree with Peru that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction and therefore reverse its judgment and remand the case with the instruction that it be dismissed without prejudice.

I.

A.

This case’s facts read like the latest spy thriller. An earlier, and partial, recitation of the facts appears in this court’s opinion in Guevara v. Republic of Peru, 468 F.3d 1289 (11th Cir.2006) (“Guevara I”), which we recite in this subpart. In the 1990s, Montesinos was the head of Peru’s National Intelligence Agency. During that time, while discharging the duties of his office, he purportedly committed several crimes — arms trafficking, drug dealing, money laundering, extortion, bribery, and “more than a few murders.” Id. at 1292. The Peruvian media obtained videotapes of his participation in some of these crimes, including bribery, and after the videotapes became public, President Alberto Fujimori announced in September 2000 that he would dissolve the intelligence agency and step down as president. Montesinos, seeing the writing on the wall, fled the country, first into Venezuela, then, it seemed, into thin air.

A manhunt ensued, and in April 2001, Peru’s Interim President, Valentin Corazao, issued an Emergency Decree that provided for a $5 million reward for the “person or persons who provide(s) accurate information that will directly enable locating and capturing” Montesinos. Id. at 1293.2 The decree established a committee, the Special High Level Committee (“SHLC”), as part of the Ministry of the Interior to receive such information and assess its accuracy.3 The decree authorized the Peruvian government to obtain a loan from a Peruvian bank to pay the [1301]*1301reward, with the funds to be deposited in a Peruvian account in the interim. The reward would be paid twenty-four hours after Montesinos’s capture.4

It turned out that Guevara, a Venezuelan national, was providing Montesinos with a hiding place and a security detail in Caracas, Venezuela. In addition, Guevara was handling Montesinos’s communications with Pacific Industrial Bank in Miami, Florida, where Montesinos maintained a bank account. When the bank declined his request to transfer his funds to another bank, Montesinos emailed Percovich, the officer assigned to the account, threatening him with physical harm unless the bank honored his request. Montesinos then sent Guevara to Miami with instructions for Percovich. Percovich, aware that Guevara was coming to Miami, contacted the FBI in the meantime to inform them of Montesinos’s threat and Guevara’s involvement with Montesinos, so when Guevara arrived in Miami in June 2001, the FBI detained him and prepared to charge him with a criminal offense.5 The FBI informed Guevara that he would not be charged if he disclosed Montesinos’s whereabouts. And, if Montesinos was captured, Guevara could claim the $5 million reward Peru had posted.6

Guevara cooperated; he revealed Montesinos’s location in Caracas and arranged through some of his associates in Caracas for Montesinos to be delivered into the hands of Venezuelan officials. They arrested Montesinos and turned him over to the Peruvian authorities. Peru, however, refused to pay Guevara the $5 million reward.

B.

Guevara sued Peru in Florida state court, and Peru removed the ease to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida under 28 U.S.C. § 1441(d). Guevara framed his complaint in five counts, as set out in the margin.7 [1302]*1302Peru moved to dismiss the case pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), arguing the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1602-1611, rendered it immune from suit. The district court granted Peru’s motion on the ground that Peru’s conduct did not fall under any of the enumerated exceptions to the FSIA’s presumption of sovereign immunity. Guevara then appealed the dismissal to this court.

We held that Peru’s offer of a reward fell within the FSIA’s commercial activity exception.8 We reasoned that instead of using its own police and investigatory powers to search for Montesinos, Peru “ ‘ventured into the marketplace’ ... to buy the information needed to get its man.” Guevara I, 468 F.3d at 1299 (quoting Hond. Aircraft Registry, Ltd. v. Gov’t of Hond., 129 F.3d 543, 547 (11th Cir.1997)). Because sovereign states can engage in commercial activities by contracting with private parties, id. at 1300, and because Peru acted like a private party in entering the market for rewards, id. at 1301, the FSIA’s definition of “commercial activity” in 28 U.S.C. § 1603(d) fully encompassed the reward, id. at 1305. In turn, because a state’s private, commercial acts divest it of sovereign immunity under the so-called “restrictive theory,” id. at 1297, Peru was not immune from suit under the FSIA’s exception. We accordingly vacated the district court’s judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings.

On remand, the district court issued a new scheduling order and the parties engaged in discovery. At the close of discovery, Guevara moved the court for summary judgment on two counts of his complaint, those claiming breach of contract,9 arguing that he was entitled to the reward because he had fulfilled the terms of Peru’s offer. Deposition and affidavit evidence submitted in support of Guevara’s motion had provided new information about Guevara’s role in Montesinos’s capture. We now recount the facts that evidence established.10

C.

Guevara was formerly an officer in the Venezuelan intelligence agency, Dirección Nacional de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención (“National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services”) (“DI-SIP”).11 On December 15, 2000, Guevara [1303]*1303received a telephone call from his second cousin asking him to receive a visitor at Guevara’s residence in Caracas.

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Bluebook (online)
608 F.3d 1297, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 12483, 2010 WL 2426029, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guevara-v-republic-of-peru-ca11-2010.