Republic of Panama v. Republic National Bank of New York

In February 1988, the president of the Republic of Panama (Panama) (plaintiff), Eric Delvalle, dismissed Manuel Noriega as commander of Panama’s military. Noriega resisted his removal by causing Panama’s National Assembly to purportedly remove Delvalle from office. Panama’s Cabinet Council subsequently named Manuel Palma as minister in charge of the presidency. The United States government recognized Delvalle as Panama’s president. In March 1988, Panama designated its ambassador to the United States as the sole person authorized to exercise control over Panama’s accounts with federally insured banks in the United States. The acting United States secretary of state accepted and recognized this designation. Panama obtained temporary restraining orders preventing the Marine Midland Bank (Marine), Bankers Trust Company (BT), Republic National Bank of New York (Republic), and another bank (collectively, defendants) from debiting any of Panama’s accounts or otherwise disposing of the Panama assets they held. Republic and another bank settled with Panama, which thereafter moved for a preliminary injunction against Marine and Irving Trust Company (defendant) that would prohibit them from disposing of Panama’s approximately $50 million with the banks. Marine and BT argued that a preliminary injunction would be improper because Panama would not be irreparably harmed without an injunction. Per Marine and BT, Panama would suffer no irreparable harm because (1) Panama alleged mere monetary loss and (2) Marine and BT could pay $50 million to Panama.