Court to Hear Case Involving Philippines Claim to Marcos Money
Does $35 million stolen by former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos belong to victims of his regime or the Philippine government?
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide the Philippine government’s rights in litigation involving that question when it accepted Republic of the Philippines v. Pimentel today, SCOTUSblog reports. The dispute involves funds held in an account by Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, according to Associated Press.
The Philippine government, which has asserted sovereign immunity, asks whether it had a right to be treated as party (PDF) to the litigation over other claims to the assets. The Supreme Court also directed the parties to address whether the U.S. government had a right to appeal a ruling that it was not an indispensable party to the lawsuit.
The government supports the Philippines in its amicus brief (PDF).
