Quebec's court of appeal has dismissed an appeal by Iraq government against Kuwait Airways' (KAC) successful legal campaign over the theft of its aircraft during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
KAC last year seized Iraqi Airways (IAC) and State of Iraq interests in an order of new aircraft from Bombardier in Montreal. KAC claims that the formal contract between the Ministry of Finance of Iraq and Bombardier is a sham and that the real contract is between IAC and Bombardier. The fight continues in the Quebec courts but even the total value of the contract is nowhere near the full amount of the judgments held by KAC.
The Supreme Court of Canada found last year that Iraq was not entitled to plead state immunity when KAC sought to enforce the English judgments in the Canadian Courts.
Yesterday’s hearing came on the 20th anniversary of the first action by KAC against the Oraqis Christopher Gooding, of London lawyers Fasken Martineau who has represented KAC throughout what is now the longest running commercial case in the history of the English Courts said:” “The Quebec Court of Appeal today gave summary judgment in five lines dismissing the last of Iraq and Iraqi Airways' spurious jurisdictional and procedural objections to enforcement of KAC's judgments and the seizure of the Bombardier aircraft. This leaves the way clear for trial of the merits of KAC's claims relating to the Bombardier contract.
We are especially pleased with this result on the 20 anniversary of the start of the case! These have been 20 long years in which Iraq and its puppet airline have attempted to use every trick in the book to escape liability. There is true poetic justice in receiving such a dismissive judgment on this day."
The writ was issued 20 years ago on 11 January 1991 - mainly due to a series of findings of perjury and fraud against IAC which led to an overthrowing of 12 years of previous decisions. KAC now holds judgments on the correct facts totalling over $1.2 billion against IAC and $ 83.5m against the State of Iraq.