Opinion ID: 215200
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Rivas E-mail Received April 15

Text: On April 15, 2008, Validsa received an e-mail string from Paolo Rivas (“Rivas e-mail”), a PSI employee. This string included an April 8, 2008 e-mail from Rafael Rosales (“Rosales”), an in-house attorney for Bariven. The e-mail was intended as an internal communication to employees of PSI and Bariven, and was sent inadvertently to Validsa. The e-mail was entitled “Dexton[2]-Suspension of PSO Meat-Demand for Delivery of Chicken” and read in part as: On the instructions of Mr. Georges Kabboul–effective immediately–you are instructed to cancel [Purchase Order] 757. Likewise, we request the current situation of the delay of chickens also purchased from this company, in any case you are instructed to suspend any payment if there is any. On the part of our Law Office, we request the documentation that shows the problems about the failure to deliver chickens.[3] The string also included a second message that read: Per Mr. Georges Kabboul’s instructions, please proceed to cancel Purchase Order No. 5100061757 [Contract 757] for 2400 [sic] MT of beef placed with Empresa [Company] Dexton . . . Likewise, it is instructed that any pending payment to said company be suspended. As of April 15, 2008, the date Validsa received the e-mail containing these messages, Validsa had not delivered any beef under contract 757 or any sugar 2 Dexton is a name that Validsa used in some of its business dealings. 3 The original e-mail was in Spanish, and the parties use slightly different versions. The defendants-appellants’ version is reproduced here; the differences in the translations are immaterial. 7 under contract 632. According to Bariven and PSI, Rosales sent the e-mails following meetings in Brazil with a supplier that raised concerns about Validsa’s performance under some of the November 2007 contracts for chicken. Between April 8, when Rosales sent the e-mails, and April 15, when the e-mails were sent to Validsa, no one from Bariven or PSI informed Validsa that Bariven or PSI intended to cancel contract No. 757, and the companies did not seek the return of the $44.580 million in advance payments from Validsa.