Cleary Gottlieb obtained an irrevocable letter of credit for $20 million for Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. to secure full payment of an existing judgment for $9.5 million, as well as still pending additional claims, against Eastbrook Caribe A.V.V.
In November 2004, Cleary Gottlieb won a judgment in the New York State Supreme Court against Eastbrook for the breach of a settlement agreement and release the parties entered into in 1996. Cleary Gottlieb established that the release was breached when Eastbrook refiled a lawsuit against Fresh Del Monte in 2002 and that the filing of the lawsuit caused in excess of $14.1 million in damages to Fresh Del Monte and its principal shareholder.
In November 2004, Cleary Gottlieb also filed suit against W. Scott Perry, the sole shareholder of Eastbrook, on alter ego liability grounds, asserting that he was liable for any judgment rendered against Eastbrook. In December 2004, working with English counsel, Cleary Gottlieb obtained a pre-judgment attachment of Mr. Perry’s home in London. In March 2005, the Court denied Perry’s motion to dismiss the alter ego complaint against him. With the assistance of Swiss counsel, Cleary Gottlieb obtained an ex parte order of attachment for Perry’s Swiss bank account on June 9. Later that day, Perry’s counsel proposed that Perry would deliver a letter of credit to secure the amount of all claims in the suit against Eastbrook in exchange for dismissal of the alter ego action against Perry and release of the attachments in England and Switzerland. Consequently, all of Fresh Del Monte’s claims against Eastbrook are now fully secured and the ability to collect the judgments is no longer in doubt.