Mexican offshore services company Cotemar S.A. de C.V. has filed an action in New York seeking to enforce a Mexican court judgment against ABSG Consulting Inc. for unpaid work associated with a modular drilling rig project in the Gulf of Mexico.
The filing asks the Supreme Court of the State of New York to recognize a $34.8 million judgment entered against ABSG, a subsidiary of the American Bureau of Shipping. Cotemar said the amount owed has increased to $59.4 million with interest calculated under Mexican and New York law.
The dispute stems from a September 2017 contract under which ABSG retained Cotemar to provide personnel, equipment and other logistical support for the transportation and installation of a modular drilling rig on an offshore platform. Cotemar completed the work in March 2018, according to the company.
Cotemar said ABSG issued signed certificates confirming that the work had been performed satisfactorily and in accordance with the contract but did not pay the company. ABSG maintained that it was attempting to obtain payment from the project’s prime contractor, Tamaulipas Modular Rig S.A. de C.V. (TMR), according to Cotemar.
Mexican courts subsequently found that TMR had already paid ABSG in full under its contract. TMR presented bank transfer records as evidence during the proceedings, Cotemar said.
Cotemar sued ABSG in Mexico City in July 2018. A trial court ruled in Cotemar’s favor on March 30, 2022, finding that ABSG had satisfactorily received the work, had been paid by TMR and had acknowledged its debt to Cotemar.
A Mexican appellate court affirmed the judgment in June 2023, rejecting ABSG’s grounds for appeal as “unfounded and inoperative,” according to Cotemar.
Cotemar is represented in the New York proceeding by Thomas C. White of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. ABSG had not publicly responded to Cotemar’s Aug. 26 announcement.
