A federal jurist in Washington, D.C. has denied Argentina’s motion to dismiss a legal proceeding aiming to enforce a $325 million arbitration ruling. The case stems from a disagreement over the renationalization of the nation’s state-owned airline, Aerolíneas Argentinas, and comes following a tribunal’s decision in favor of the complainants. In her judgement, Judge Jia M. Cobb upheld the suit as timely under a 12-year statute of limitations.
On Monday, Judge Cobb ruled that Titan Consortium 1 LLC’s lawsuit, submitted in 2021, falls within the 12-year statute of limitations outlined in Section 15-101 of the D.C. Code. The judge rejected Argentina’s argument that a three-year statute of limitations, drawn from federal or D.C. arbitration law, should apply. Titan seeks to enforce the arbitration award granted to affiliates of the Spanish travel group Grupo Marsans, which invested in Aerolíneas Argentinas and its sister airline Austral Cielos del Sur before Argentina seized the companies’ shares without compensation in 2008.
