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In August 2019, an American court of appeal ruled in favor of liquor tycoon John Paul DeJoria, preventing him from paying a $123-million Moroccan settlement after a failed oil project. His victory came after a long battle he fought against Lone Star, which is now known as Moroccan private company Maghreb Petroleum Exploration.
But DeJoria’s battle has not ended yet. Four months after a US court of appeal affirmed a prior judgment that refused to recognize a Moroccan court’s ruling against DeJoria, the Moroccan side got back on track.
According to Austin-based media The Texas Tribune, the Moroccan side asked the US Supreme Court, Monday, to hear the case, «arguing it should not allow wealthy litigants to change the law mid-fight».
The party refers, in particular, through its request to the 2005 Uniform Foreign Country Money-Judgment Recognition Act, which entitled nonrecognition of the Moroccan judgment that would have forced Dejoria to pay 969,832,062,22 Moroccan dirhams.
Changing the law to win a court battle against Morocco
The 2005 law was indeed changed amid DeJoria’s fight with the Moroccan firm. But how did he manage to do that? To The Texas Tribune, the American billionaire has successfully managed to lobby his way through, making the Texas legislature amend the act in question.
To get the court dismiss the Moroccan judgment, DeJoria and his attorney focused on the Texas Foreign Country Money-Judgments Recognition Act. The latter «dictates when courts must recognize foreign money judgments, aiming to protect Texans from being swindled in courts that lack U.S. standards of justice».
DeJoria needed to make his case fit in the Act to win the dispute. His lobbying campaign for that sake started in 2017 in Austin, where he attended important galas and events. In Texas, he also hired a lobbying firm that was founded by the «former chairman of the Texas House’s powerful State Affairs Committee and a common presence at the Capitol», wrote the Texas Tribune.
Quoting federal records, the same source indicates that DeJoria paid two lobbyists «between $50,000 and $99,999.99 each for less than a month of work in December 2016, and three lobbyists the same range each for about a year of work in 2017».
Their mission was to convince the Texas legislature to amend the money judgment recognition act, so he could return to court. And so it was, the law was updated, despite the refusal of the Moroccan side’s attorney.
DeJoria returned to the Texas District court to inform them of the change in law. The latter dismissed the case, ruling that «DeJoria was unable to attend the Moroccan proceedings, that he was unable to obtain counsel to represent him in those proceedings, and that, although the Moroccan court relied on an expert’s opinion to determine damages, that expert lacked independence».
This decision pushed Maghreb Petroleum Exploration to seek the help of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed the initial Texas district court’s ruling, allowing the nonrecognition of the Moroccan judgment.
