Filed: Nov. 12, 2019
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS NOV 12 2019 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT THE BOEING COMPANY; BOEING No. 18-55283 COMMERCIAL SPACE COMPANY, D.C. No. Plaintiffs-Appellees, 2:13-cv-00730-AB-AJW v. MEMORANDUM* KB YUZHNOYE; PO YUZHNOYE MASHINOSTROITELNY ZAVOD, Defendants-Appellants. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Andre Birotte, Jr., District Judge, Presiding Submitted October 22, 2019**
Summary: NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS NOV 12 2019 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT THE BOEING COMPANY; BOEING No. 18-55283 COMMERCIAL SPACE COMPANY, D.C. No. Plaintiffs-Appellees, 2:13-cv-00730-AB-AJW v. MEMORANDUM* KB YUZHNOYE; PO YUZHNOYE MASHINOSTROITELNY ZAVOD, Defendants-Appellants. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Andre Birotte, Jr., District Judge, Presiding Submitted October 22, 2019** P..
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NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS NOV 12 2019
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
THE BOEING COMPANY; BOEING No. 18-55283
COMMERCIAL SPACE COMPANY,
D.C. No.
Plaintiffs-Appellees, 2:13-cv-00730-AB-AJW
v.
MEMORANDUM*
KB YUZHNOYE; PO YUZHNOYE
MASHINOSTROITELNY ZAVOD,
Defendants-Appellants.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Central District of California
Andre Birotte, Jr., District Judge, Presiding
Submitted October 22, 2019**
Pasadena, California
Before: CALLAHAN and OWENS, Circuit Judges, and RESTANI,*** Judge.
Defendants-appellees, KB Yuzhnoye and PO Yuzhnoye Mashinostroitelny
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
**
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
***
The Honorable Jane A. Restani, Judge for the United States Court of
International Trade, sitting by designation.
Zavod (collectively “Yuzhnoye”), appeal the district court’s grant of summary
judgment in a breach of contract action brought under the Foreign Sovereign
Immunities Act (FSIA), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1602 et seq., by The Boeing Company and
its wholly-owned subsidiary Boeing Commercial Space Company (BCSC)
(collectively “Boeing”). Yuzhnoye also appeals the district court’s order denying
its motion to alter or amend the judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure
59(e) as well as the court’s order denying its motion for a stay in favor of Swedish
arbitration.
In 1996, Boeing, Yuzhnoye, and two other entities, Kvaerner and Energia,
formed a joint venture, known as Sea Launch, to launch commercial satellites into
space from an ocean platform. In 2009, the joint venture failed, and Sea Launch
filed for bankruptcy, defaulting on loans made to the venture and triggering
Boeing’s guarantees of Sea Launch’s third-party loans, which Boeing paid $449
million to cover. Boeing alleged that Yuzhnoye refused to reimburse its share of
the losses as Yuzhnoye was obligated to do under the joint venture and loan
guarantee provisions in two contracts, referred to herein as the Sea Launch
Creation Agreement and the BCSC Loan Guarantee agreement. The district court
granted summary judgment for Boeing and entered judgment against Yuzhnoye.
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We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm.1
1. “[S]ummary judgment is appropriate when ‘there is no genuine dispute as
to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.’”
Albino v. Baca,
747 F.3d 1162, 1168 (9th Cir. 2014) (en banc) (quoting Fed. R.
Civ. P. 56(a)). Based on our own de novo review of the record in the light most
favorable to Yuzhnoye, we conclude that the district court did not err in granting
summary judgment for Boeing. Specifically, we agree with the district court’s
conclusions that: (1) under Swedish law, the alleged oral representations by
Boeing’s representatives did not modify Yuzhnoye’s obligations under the
Creation Agreement because there was no evidence that Boeing acted consistent
with the alleged representations; (2) Yuzhnoye’s defenses to the alleged breach of
the BCSC Loan Guarantee agreement failed as a matter of UK law; and (3)
Yuzhnoye’s defenses to the alleged breach of the Creation Agreement failed as a
matter of Swedish law.
On appeal, Yuzhnoye does not present any arguments as to whether or how
the district court erred in its assessment or application of Swedish or UK law. Nor
does Yuzhnoye explain how its alleged disputes of fact are material to any of its
affirmative defenses. Because Yuzhnoye fails to present a genuine issue of
1
Because the parties are familiar with the facts and issues in this appeal, we
do not recite them in detail.
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material fact as to Boeing’s breach of contract claims or Yuzhnoye’s many
defenses, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment.
2. A district court may grant a Rule 59(e) motion if it “is presented with
newly discovered evidence, committed clear error, or if there is an intervening
change in the controlling law.” McDowell v. Calderon,
197 F.3d 1253, 1255 (9th
Cir. 1999) (en banc) (per curiam) (emphasis in original). Here, Energia filed a
Rule 59(e) motion to reduce the judgment against Energia by the amount that
Kvaerner had paid Boeing on Energia’s behalf. Yuzhnoye filed a joinder to
Energia’s motion that “incorporated by reference” the arguments it previously
raised in its Opposition Memorandum to the proposed judgment, but did not file its
own Rule 59(e) motion. After Energia settled, thereby leaving Yuzhnoye the
remaining defendant, the district court denied the motion to alter judgment because
“Yuzhnoye has not provided any argument for how it could benefit from”
Energia’s motion.
The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Yuzhnoye’s motion
to alter or amend the judgment given Yuzhnoye’s failure to file its own Rule 59(e)
motion or to raise substantive arguments in its joinder. However, assuming that
the district court should have considered the claims raised earlier in Yuzhnoye’s
Opposition Memorandum, the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining
to amend the judgment against Yuzhnoye. At summary judgment, the district
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court considered and rejected Yuzhnoye’s unjust enrichment defense, which
essentially presented the same arguments and facts that Yuzhnoye later raised for
amending the judgment. Yuzhnoye did not present any “newly discovered
evidence” or “an intervening change in the controlling law” that would warrant
Rule 59(e) relief, or otherwise show clear error in the final judgment.
Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s denial of Yuzhnoye’s Rule 59(e)
motion.
3. The district court also did not abuse its discretion in denying Yuzhnoye’s
motion for a stay in favor of Swedish arbitration. On appeal, Yuzhnoye argues that
the district court should have granted its motion based on section 3 of the Federal
Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C. § 3. However, Yuzhnoye failed to raise this
argument below, thereby waiving it. Even if the argument were not waived, we
would reject it on the merits. As the district court found, only the Creation
Agreement claims were referable to the Swedish arbitration, whereas the BCSC
Loan Guaranty claims were not. Furthermore, Yuzhnoye’s previous position that
the Swedish arbitrator lacked jurisdiction over Boeing’s claims was clearly
inconsistent with its right to arbitration and constituted a waiver of that right. See
Martin v. Yasuda,
829 F.3d 1118, 1124 (9th Cir. 2016) (“The right to arbitration,
like other contractual rights, can be waived.”); Fisher v. A.G. Becker Paribas Inc.,
791 F.2d 691, 694 (9th Cir. 1986) (“A party seeking to prove waiver of a right to
5
arbitration must demonstrate: (1) knowledge of an existing right to compel
arbitration; (2) acts inconsistent with that existing right; and (3) prejudice to the
party opposing arbitration resulting from such inconsistent acts.”).
AFFIRMED.
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