FOGADE v. ENB Revocable Trust
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
263 F.3d 1274 (2001)
FOGADE (plaintiff), Venezuela's equivalent of the FDIC, placed the failing bank Corpofin into receivership and removed its directors (defendants), who allegedly then sold $30 million in Eastern National Bank shares to a trust they controlled for less than $1 million; FOGADE sued in Florida federal court to recover the shares, and the defendants raised as a defense that FOGADE's receivership itself was an illegal confiscation of their rights, invoking the Second Hickenlooper Amendment to argue the act-of-state doctrine could not shield FOGADE's claim. The district court granted FOGADE summary judgment, and the defendants appealed.
Whether the Second Hickenlooper Amendment prevents a court from applying the act-of-state doctrine to claims of takings by foreign nations in violation of international law.