News & Resources

The Puerto Rico Supreme Court appointed Litigation Associate Maritere Colón to a fourth consecutive term as an official grader of the Puerto Rico General Bar Examination and Litigation Associate María D. Trelles Hernández to the Board of the Continuing Legal Education Program.

In the pending arbitration of National Flour v. Santiago, Partner Jorge I. Peirats and Associate Giselle López-Soler obtained a favorable ruling on behalf of a claimant that is a principal to a distribution agreement. Under the parties’ agreement, the law of Alabama, rather than Puerto Rico’s Act 75, applied. Oftentimes, distributors will invoke Act 75, even when the terms of the contract state that the law of another forum will govern, in order to benefit from the statute’s “for cause only” termination or impairment provisions. Respondent claimed that Act 75’s strong public policy and ban on the application of foreign laws ought to have invalidated the choice of law provision. The Arbitrator held that Alabama substantive law controlled.

PMA was proud to be one of the sponsors of the XV Miguel Velázquez Rivera Debate Competition held by the University of Puerto Rico’s School of Law. One of the Firm’s Partners, Heidi Rodríguez, judged the competition’s final round together with Hon. Anabelle Rodríguez, Associate Justice of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, and Luis Román, Esq., Director of the Legislation and Opinion Division at the Department of Justice (and a former associate of the Firm). After the teams from the different law schools in the Island debated issues of a woman’s right to choose and the local statute suspending living wills during a patient’s pregnancy, the panel of Judges declared the team from the Eugenio María de Hostos Law School as the winner. The Firm congratulates all of the participating teams and the Editorial Board of the 78th Volume of the UPR’s Law Review for a successful endeavor.

PMA represented a hospital in a review petition filed and argued before The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations to obtain a reversal of a notice of preliminary denial.

Litigation Partner Jorge I. Peirats and Associate Maritere Colón recently achieved a favorable outcome for one of its clients against which a request for preliminary injunction was filed under Act 75 (dealer’s act) and Act 21 (sales representative’s act) and in the alternative for a provisional remedy under Rule 56 of the Puerto Rico Rules of Civil Procedure. The Court of First Instance, San Juan Part, dismissed the Act 75 and Act 21 causes of action and denied the request for a provisional remedy. The Opinion and Order was issued after a seven-day evidentiary hearing.

Litigation Partner Néstor Méndez was appointed to serve a three year term on the Board of the Foundation of the Federal Bar Association. The Foundation is a non-profit, Congressionally-chartered organization that is separate, but works closely with the Federal Bar Association. Its mission is to promote and support legal research and education; advance the science of jurisprudence; facilitate the administration of justice; and foster improvements in the practice of federal law. The FBA Foundation also runs the FBA Fellows Program.

At the request of Governor Elect Luis Fortuño, Partner Manuel R. Pietrantoni has joined a group of fourteen prominent Puerto Rico business leaders to recommend solutions to address and tackle the Island’s fiscal and economic challenges. As reported in the Tuesday November 11, 2008 edition of The Puerto Rico Daily Sun, the “work of the . . . [Economic and Fiscal Reconstruction Advisory Council] . . . is intended to guide the Fortuño administration after it takes office [on] January 2, 2009.”

Ticket Center Inc. v. Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Case Num. 04-cv-20621. On October 31, 2008, the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico granted Banco Popular\’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed a $45 million Complaint for Ticket Center’s failure to provide any admissible evidence to prove that Banco Popular engaged in any anti-competitive activity in violation of the Bank Holding Company Act or the Sherman Act.

The Firm congratulates Néstor M. Méndez Gómez, a Life Fellow of the Federal Bar Association Foundation, for his contribution to the Historical Portraits Project undertaken by the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. Néstor helped to organize a July 10, 2008 ceremony to unveil three portraits of former judges of the Court, including that of its first Article III Judge, Hiram R. Cancio and was the spokesperson during the induction of Judge Cancio as a Life Fellow at the event.

A team of PMA attorneys led by Jaime Santos, assisted Pratt & Whitney in the establishment in Puerto Rico of Axon Puerto Rico, a new joint venture entity dedicated to the business of providing information and technology services to commercial enterprises, primarily in the aerospace and defense sectors.