Arab Monetary Fund v. Hashim (In re Hashim)

We must decide whether the bankruptcy court erred in denying comity to a British court’s unliquidated award of court costs and attorneys’ fees because the award was “repugnant to the principles of American jurisprudence.”

I

This is an appeal of the bankruptcy court’s order disallowing three identical claims filed by the Arab Monetary Fund (“AMF”) in three individual bankruptcy proceedings. The three debtors whose bankruptcies are affected by the order are the members of the nuclear family of Dr. Jawad Hashim (“Hashim”). Salwa Al-Ru-faiee is his wife, and Jafar and Omar are his sons.

Hashim was the first President and Director General of the AMF, an organization headquartered in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which has been described as the Middle Eastern Islamic counterpart to the International Monetary Fund. 1 Hashim served in his capacity as the head of the AMF from 1977 to 1982. According to his attorney, Hashim also served as planning minister to Saddam Hussein during that time as well. In 1982 or 1983, Hashim purportedly defected to Canada and declared his opposition to Hussein’s rule in Iraq. Salwa and Omar had moved in 1980 to England, where Jafar attended boarding…