Hannes v. Kingdom of Roumania Monopolies Institute

260 A.D. 189, 20 N.Y.S.2d 825, 1940 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4559
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJune 19, 1940
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 260 A.D. 189 (Hannes v. Kingdom of Roumania Monopolies Institute) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hannes v. Kingdom of Roumania Monopolies Institute, 260 A.D. 189, 20 N.Y.S.2d 825, 1940 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4559 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

Callahan, J.

This appeal involves a claim of immunity from suit made by a foreign sovereign. It presents three important questions. The first is whether such a claim of sovereign immunity will prevail in behalf of a corporation wholly owned and operated by a foreign government; the second is whether the property attached herein is immune from attachment because it is the property of the foreign sovereign; and the third question is whether there was an effective waiver of immunity or consent to suit by the foreign government. While to some extent interrelated, we think that these questions may be separately considered.

The defendant is an autonomous corporate entity, created pursuant to the laws of the Kingdom of Roumania. It appears to be wholly owned, operated and controlled by the Kingdom of Roumania. The defendant was formed pursuant to the laws of Roumania for the purpose of exploiting certain monopolies, and of [191]*191issuing bonds and obtaining moneys from investors by the sale of such bonds, in connection with international loans.

The present action is brought by the plaintiff as the owner of a number of unpaid coupons attached to some of the bonds so issued and sold by the defendant in this country. The action was commenced by means of a warrant of attachment levied against moneys deposited with two New York banks, which moneys plaintiff claims belong to the defendant.

The plea of immunity is presented by the defendant, and by the Kingdom of Roumania appearing specially for that purpose. The Kingdom of Roumania’s claim is also presented by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who appears at the suggestion of the Secretary of State of the United States. The United States Attorney transmits to the court the plea of sovereign immunity made by the Kingdom of Roumania, stating that it is presented for such consideration as the Court may deem necessary and proper.”

As the executive branch of our government does not indicate that it takes any position as to Roumania’s claim of sovereignty, this court must determine such claim in the manner it deems proper upon the facts and the law.

The claim for immunity was initiated before Special Term by a motion requesting the court to decline jurisdiction because of said immunity, and to dismiss the complaint under rule 107 of the Rules of Civil Practice upon the ground that no jurisdiction existed over the defendant or the property of the Kingdom of Roumania because of its sovereignty. Defendant also moved to vacate the warrant of attachment for like reasons. These demands were based on the grounds that the action related to the public debt of Roumania; that the sovereign rights of said government were affected; that the defendant was an agent or instrumentality of the government, and that the property attached was the property of the Kingdom of Roumania.

Special Term granted the motion and declined jurisdiction of the action, holding -that the claim of immunity was established on the record submitted.

Under our practice, affidavits were properly used upon this motion to set forth the facts supporting the claim of lack of jurisdiction, as such facts did not appear on the face of the complaint.

Rule 108 of the Rules of Civil Practice provides that if the plaintiff on the hearing of a motion under rule 107 presents affidavits denying the facts alleged by the defendant, or states facts tending to obviate the objection, the court may hear the same, or it may direct that the question of fact, which shall be clearly and dis[192]*192tinctly stated in the order, be tried by a jury or a referee, the findings of which are to be reported to the court for action. If it sees fit to do so, the court may overrule the objection and, in its discretion, allow the facts to be alleged in the answer as a defense.

Plaintiff has submitted affidavits in opposition to this motion. Both the moving affidavits and the opposing affidavits consist largely of excerpts from the statutes under which defendant was created, copies of loan agreements under which the bonds involved herein were issued, certain guaranty agreements executed by the Kingdom of Roumania, and agreements of deposit under which the moneys attached herein were held.

The record, while it presents a fairly complete picture of the circumstances under which the defendant was created and under which the loan involved was made, in so far as may be gleaned from the above-mentioned documents, contains little or no proof of other facts or of the law of Roumania which might materially affect not only the meaning of the statutes under consideration, but also the questions of immunity and waiver which are presented. On the present record, we deem that these are issues of fact which should not have been determined on the affidavits alone, and that, until there be further proof taken concerning all the matters involved, the claims of immunity asserted by the defendant should not be allowed.

In order to understand the problem presented, it will be necessary to outline some of the facts disclosed by the documents contained in the record. It appears therefrom that the defendant was created to carry out a plan embodied in the Monetary Law of the Kingdom of Roumania. That law provided that the defendant was to be an autonomous institution which would enjoy legal personality, to which the State would transfer the right to exploit certain monopolies. The defendant was authorized to issue bonds to make international loans. The proceeds of the first loan to be made were to be paid by the defendant to the Kingdom of Roumania on account of the price fixed for the right to exploit the monopolies transferred to it.

This law also provided that defendant was to be a legally independent institution, enjoying full civil, personal and financial autonomy for the purpose of exploiting the monopolies, of engaging in commercial and financial operations, and particularly of issuing loans in the interest of the monetary stabilization and the economic development of said country.

Said law further provided that the operations of the defendant were to be deemed commercial, and defendant was to enjoy all the privileges and powers of commercial companies. The con[193]*193cessions granted to defendant were to endure as long as defendant existed, and upon termination defendant was to retransfer same to the State. The defendant was to have its accounts passed and approved by the Roumanian Court of Accounts. In order to contract a loan, defendant was authorized to sell its bonds and to sign agreements to carry out said loan. The bonds issued by defendant were to have all the benefits of public loans of the government of Roumania, including exemption from taxation. The net proceeds of the sale of the bonds were to be paid to the government for governmental purposes.

Among the powers granted to defendant was the authority to acquire and dispose of property, to borrow money, to issue its bonds, to pledge its revenues as security therefor, to sue and be sued in its own name as plaintiff or defendant, and, within the limits fixed by the law of Roumania, to consummate any legal transaction permitted to commercial companies under said law.

Defendant’s affairs were to be administered .by a council, consisting mainly of public officers of Roumania, or their appointees.

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Bluebook (online)
260 A.D. 189, 20 N.Y.S.2d 825, 1940 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4559, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hannes-v-kingdom-of-roumania-monopolies-institute-nyappdiv-1940.