China National Metal Products Import/Export Co. v. Apex Digital, Inc.

ORDER REGARDING APPLICATION FOR WRIT OF ATTACHMENT

It pays to know when to say “when.” Apex Digital, Inc. (“Apex”) did not heed this saying. Pursuant to various purchase contracts, Apex imported Digital Versatile Disk (“DVD”) players from China National Metal Products Imporf/Export Company (“China National”). Soon thereafter Apex began receiving customer complaints concerning the quality of the DVD players and a flood of returned DVD players later filled their warehouse. Rather than seek to revoke the contracts or return all the defective DVD players it had received from customers, Apex continued to order more DVD players but later refused to pay for them. Instead, Apex turned around and continued to sell these DVD players to retail outlet chains. Both parties, pursuant to an arbitration clause in their purchase contracts, filed for an arbitration of their dispute before the China International Economic Trade Arbitration Commission (“CIETAC”). China National, however, has also sought from this Court a Right to Attach Order and for Writs of Attachment against Apex’s property in the amount of $22,742,340. For the reasons and in the manner set forth below, the Right to Attach Order…