It's been a long and stony spell of nothing but bad news for government in Miami Federal Court but finally, tonight, it can claim a major victory. Federal Judge Ursula Ungaro Benages issued a thundering and comprehensive judgement this morning and basically tells Jeff Prosser to go home and lick his wounds because he isn't gonna get any sympathy from her court.
It is Ungaro-Benages's final judgement on the case and both government and ICC have been waiting for it since June 23rd when the trial concluded. At that time ICC had claimed for damages of US$24 million and it was widely felt that while they mightn't get all that, they would get something.
Well, the news tonight is, they got nothing, or virtually nothing. The 55 page judgement dismisses all but one of ICC's claims for damages and the one area where she does find that there were damages, she awards ICC only "nominal damages" which, typically, amounts to nothing more than a few dollars.
Most notably, Ungaro Benages revisits and reverses her position on her March 11th preliminary injunction when she ruled that government had illegally removed two ICC directors from the BTL board. Well, turns out, the Judge was wrong on that, and in this judgement she admits it. Her reversal is based on a change in perspective; Ungaro Benages says that instead of seeing whether the ICC directors were illegally removed, she went to see if they were legally appointed, and she found that they were not.
It's notable because that March 11th injunction was the basis for the contempt charge of US$50,000 a day and now that the finding has been debunked, it's not clear if those contempt charges that have accrued still stand, and if the meter is still running.
Consequentially, Ungaro-Benages also declined ICC's request to enter a permanent injunction and voided her own March 11 injunction. That means that for the first time in a while, the government is free to do as it wishes with BTL without incurring the wrath of the Miami court. And as encouraging as that is, it is equally discouraging for Prosser's ICC because it has lost the security from the only court that had offered it comfort.
Still Prosser has many pending actions aimed at undoing and embarrassing the government including taking up a US$200 million international arbitration. His attorneys are also free to appeal this decision.
Government's Miami attorneys, Hunton and Williams are expected to now ask the court for an interpretation of the contempt charges.
