MIAMI — On June 13, 2018, M. Paula Aguila successfully argued to the Florida Third District Court of Appeal that a trial court’s order denying a motion to dismiss based on a forum selection clause in the parties’ agreement should be reversed in Hamed Wardak, et. al. v. Estrategia Investimentos, S.A., et. al. Aguila, Andrés Rivero, and Alan H. Rolnick are defending a Florida resident and several Florida entities, against claims in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, arising from a multimillion dollar financial transaction.

The Court of Appeal sided with Aguila’s argument stating that, “the plain language of this contract expresses an unmistakable intent to make the forum provision exclusive…[and that] there was no ambiguity.”  The Court of Appeal concluded that the forum selection clause, as written, was mandatory, exclusive and unambiguous and, thus, the case should be litigated in Brazil. The Third District Court of Appeal reversed the trial court order on October 17, 2018.

About Rivero Mestre LLP

Rivero Mestre, with offices in Miami and New York, represents clients from investigation to verdict and appeal in complex business disputes in U.S. federal courts, state courts, and domestic and international arbitration proceedings. The firm’s practice focuses primarily on representing corporate and institutional clients in a broad range of complex commercial disputes including financial institution matters, intellectual property disputes, and litigation and arbitration relating to Latin American trade and investment.