Andes Petroleum Ecuador Ltd. v. Occidental Exploration and Production Company

Background

Andes Petroleum Ecuador Ltd. was the judgment creditor in the case. The court had entered a December 2, 2021 judgment against Occidental Exploration and Production Company, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, for $558,577,380.56 plus costs. Andes stated that only three percent of the judgment debt had been paid and that Occidental Exploration and Production Company had represented that it had no additional assets.

Andes was pursuing a motion for a turnover order against Occidental Petroleum Corporation under Rule 69 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Section 5225(b) of New York’s Civil Practice Laws and Rules. A turnover order is a court order requiring property or assets to be turned over to satisfy a judgment. Andes’s motion argued that Occidental Petroleum Corporation should be treated as the alter ego of Occidental Exploration and Production Company, according to the letter.

Request to Seal

Andes asked to file a redacted version of its memorandum and seven exhibits under seal. The exhibits included transcripts from depositions of six Occidental Petroleum Corporation officers, directors, and employees. The depositions had been taken for use in both this case and a separate related state-court action. A protective order in that related action designated the entirety of the deposition transcripts as confidential.

Andes stated that it did not believe the transcripts or exhibits contained proprietary business information and noted the general presumption that court records should be open to public inspection. But Andes said it had to file the documents under seal to comply with the protective order. The letter also gave Occidental Petroleum Corporation notice that, under Judge Hellerstein’s individual practices, it had to explain promptly why sealing was necessary.

Ruling

Judge Hellerstein granted the motion to seal. The opinion did not resolve the merits of Andes’s turnover motion, determine whether Occidental Petroleum Corporation was the alter ego of Occidental Exploration and Production Company, or decide the ultimate confidentiality of the documents. This was a ruling on the filing of materials under seal, not on the underlying judgment-enforcement dispute.