Arizona Apple Orchards v. Guyana Pharmaceutical Corp.

MEMORANDUM **

The Bank of Guyana appeals from the district court’s order denying its motion to dismiss Arizona Apple Orchards’s suit based on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1602-11 (FSIA). We have jurisdiction under the collateral order doctrine, see Adler v. Federal Republic of Nigeria, 107 F.3d 720, 723 (9th Cir.1997), and we reverse.

Arizona Apple complains that the Bank, which is the central bank of Guyana, interfered with its assignor’s contract with Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation by refusing to release the foreign currency required for Guyana Pharmaceutical to make payment through its own commercial bank to Arizona Apple. The Bank argues that it only administered Guyana’s External Payment Deposit Scheme *709 (EPDS) and that the exchange rate guarantees were not commercial guarantees or contractual obligations to Arizona Apple’s assignor. Arizona Apple counters that the Bank offered exchange rate guarantees in connection with a commercial activity.

Arizona Apple’s position turns on its view that banks regularly exchange one currency for another at a specified rate, and that the Bank here effectively guaranteed the debts of Guyanese importers. See…