Opinion ID: 6349703
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Business Deal

Text: This case began with a business deal gone wrong.1 In the 1990s, the Republic of Yemen agreed to buy wheat from a joint venture between Strickland & Davis International, Inc. (owned by Davis, our appellee’s father-in-law), and Samara Consultant Group (owned by our appellant). Samara contends that he and Davis agreed to share the profits of that wheat sale 50/50. Unfortunately, Yemen defaulted on the contract. After Yemen’s default, Davis and Yemen arbitrated their contract dispute here in the United States. On June 5, 1998, an arbitrator awarded Davis’s company $17,310,000 in damages. Six 1 We take judicial notice of the lengthy litigation history that led to this appeal—including the pleadings, records, and judgments that appear on the district court’s docket. See United States v. Rey, 811 F.2d 1453, 1457 n.5 (11th Cir. 1987) (“A court may take judicial notice of its own records and the records of inferior courts.”). USCA11 Case: 20-14629 Date Filed: 06/14/2022 Page: 4 of 27 4 Opinion of the Court 20-14629 months later, Davis’s company filed an action in federal court to enforce the arbitration award, and the district court entered judgment in favor of Davis’s company and against Yemen in the amount of $27,150,315.53 (which included the original arbitration award plus pre- and post-judgment interest). Shortly after the court entered its judgment, Davis’s company and the Republic of Yemen settled their dispute for $16,325,000. Davis forwarded $1,000,000.00 of the settlement proceeds to Samara. According to Samara, Davis made no other payments to him.