Amoco Egypt Oil Company Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation v. Leonis Navigation Company, Inc.

This is an appeal from the district court’s dismissal of an action against a foreign corporation for lack of personal jurisdiction. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

The Panay Sampaguita, a ship sailing from Singapore to France, collided with an oil platform in Egyptian waters. The ship was owned by a Panamanian corporation and bareboat chartered by Leonis Navigation (“Leonis”), a Philippine corporation with its headquarters in Manila. The platform was jointly owned by Amoco Egypt Oil Company, a Delaware corporation with its principal offices in Egypt, and Egyptian General Petro leum Corporation (“EGPC”), an instrumentality of the Egyptian government charged with exploitation of its oil resources. Amoco Egypt and EGPC (together, “Amoco”) filed suit against Leonis for $250,000,000 in damages in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Leonis’ contacts with Washington derive from its bareboat chartering of the Panay Sampaguita and three other vessels. Leonis subchartered all four vessels to Leo Maritime Co., Ltd., which further subchartered one of the vessels, the Luzon Sampaguita, to Navix Line, Ltd. (“Navix”). At the direction of time charterer Navix, the…