Elliott Associates LP v Republic of Korea - KORUS FTA - Elliott-Samsung-Cheil - PCA Case 2018-51 - Respondent's Request for Correction and Interpretation of the Award - English and Korean - 18 July 2023
Country
Year
2023
Summary
Request for Correction and Interpretation of Award - 18 July 2023
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS II. REQUEST FOR CORRECTION
A. Applicable Legal Framework
B. Identification of Computational Error Requiring Correction
C. Requested Correction
III. REQUEST FOR INTERPRETATION
A. Applicable Legal Framework
B. Identification of Ambiguity Requiring Interpretation
C. Requested Interpretation
IV. CONCLUSION AND RELIEF REQUESTED
I. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS
1. Pursuant to Articles 37 and 38 of the 2013 Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law ("UNCITRAL Rules"), Respondent Republic of Korea ("Korea") submits this request for correction and interpretation of the award rendered on 20 June 2023 in the above-captioned arbitration ("Award").
2. Correction. The Award contains an error in the computation of damages requiring correction. Specifically, despite stating an intention to use pre-tax amounts "to ensure consistency" throughout its calculations, the Tribunal--evidently unwittingly--used a post-tax figure for the amount of the "Top-Up Payment" that Claimant received from Samsung C&T Corporation ("SC&T") in May 2022 with respect to Claimant's prior shares in SC&T that were subject to a reappraisal right under Korean law ("Putback Shares"). The Tribunal then divided that post-tax amount by the number of Claimant's Putback Shares, arriving at what the Tribunal stated "appear[ed] to be" the per share amount of the Top-Up Payment (apparently not recognizing that this was a post-tax amount). To calculate Claimant's total proceeds from the sale of its Putback Shares in the actual world, the Tribunal then added (a) the per share amount of Claimant's original sale proceeds for the Putback Shares--making a point to use the pre-tax amount "to ensure consistency"; to (b) the per share amount of the Top-Up Payment for the same shares--inadvertently using the post-tax amount resulting from its calculation as described above. The Tribunal thus mixed pre- and post-tax amounts in one equation, inadvertently defeating the "consistency" it had intended to apply. This error resulted in an incorrect understatement of the amount of Claimant's actual proceeds from sale of the Putback Shares, and thus a correspondingly incorrect overstatement of the amount of Claimant's loss on the sale of those shares. The overstated loss then fed directly into the Tribunal's computation of damages, which also were overstated as a result.
3. To correct this error, the loss associated with sale of the Putback Shares should be recalculated using the pre-tax amount of the Top-Up Payment--as intended by the Tribunal.
Although it appears that Claimant did not provide the pre-tax amount of the Top-Up Payment, such amount nevertheless can be calculated using information in the record. Specifically, as explained in Section II.C below, the correct pre-tax amount can be calculated using the formula for the Top-Up Payment agreed in the Share Purchase Price and Transfer Agreement dated 15 March 2016 between Claimant and SC&T ("Settlement Agreement")1 and the share price paid to other minority shareholders pursuant to a judgment of the Korean Supreme Court issued on 14 April 2022.2 Korea provides the corrected calculations in Section II.C below.
4. Interpretation. The Award also requires an interpretation regarding the currency of pre-award interest ordered in paragraph 995(c) of the Award. Although the Tribunal stated in paragraph 961 of the Award that the applicable currency of the pre-award interest is Korean Won, the dispositif of the Award (at paragraph 995(c)) orders that pre-award interest be paid "on the sum in sub-paragraph [995](b)," which sum is stated in US Dollars.3 In Section III.C below, Korea seeks clarification as to whether the Tribunal intended to order Korea to calculate the pre-award interest in Korean Won or in US Dollars.
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IV. CONCLUSION AND RELIEF REQUESTED
29. For the foregoing reasons, Korea respectfully requests that the Tribunal grant its requests for correction and interpretation of the Award.
30. Correction. With respect to correction, Korea asks the Tribunal to re-calculate Claimant's Actual Scenario Proceeds from sale of the Putback Shares, using the pre-tax amount of the Top-Up Payment as calculated in Section II.C above, and to make all necessary corresponding corrections to all parts of the Award that state the incorrect figure for the Top- Up Payment or the Actual Scenario Proceeds, or any figure derived from such incorrect figures.
31. For ease of reference, the following table shows the paragraphs and footnotes that Korea has identified as containing errors requiring correction:
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