FILE (Joe Songer | [email protected]). Joe Songer | [email protected]
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center must honor a New York court’s decision that the Huntsville-based museum owes a production company $1.3 million for a series of animated videos promoting the interest of children in space exploration and science, the Alabama Supreme Court said Thursday.
Legal battles over the issue have stretched from Alabama to New York since 2017 and have included the question of whether the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission – which operates the rocket center – should be immune from legal challenges.
An attorney for the production company, Space Race LLC, declined comment Thursday. A spokesperson for the U.S. Space & Rocket Center said it doesn’t comment on “litigation matters.”
Space Race LLC contracted with the rocket center in 2016 for a series of animated children’s videos to be created and released to the public over a three-year period, according to the ruling. In exchange, the center agreed to pay Space Race with money it would get from a NASA grant.
Space Race produced the series, but claimed the center failed to pay the amount owed for the last year of the series – about $1.3 million, according to court documents. In December 2017 the rocket center notified Space Race that it would no longer make payments because the grant from NASA had been terminated, according to court documents.
The agreement between Space Race and the museum contained a pay-if-paid clause, expressly conditioning the Commission’s obligation to pay Space Race upon the Commission’s receipt of funds from NASA, according to court records. But Space Race claimed that NASA had terminated its agreement because the rocket center had failed to provide NASA with documentation required to continue funding the project, according to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling.
Space Race then began arbitration proceedings in New York, where arbiters ruled in favor of Space Race and awarded the balance due under the parties’ agreement, plus prejudgment interest, according to Thursday’s ruling.
In December 2018, Space Race asked a New York court to confirm the arbitration award, according to court documents. Before it could rule, the rocket center in February 2019 asked a Madison County judge to void the award. The New York trial court confirmed the arbitration award in favor of Space Race and the rocket center failed in two additional New York appeals, according to court documents.
Space Race then filed a motion to dismiss the rocket center’s appeal to the Alabama judge. Madison County Circuit Judge Claude Hundley III denied that motion. Space Race then asked the Alabama Supreme Court to issue a writ of mandamus directing Hundley to dismiss the space and rocket center’s case.
In its ruling on Thursday the Alabama Supreme Court granted Space Race’s petition and ordered Hundley to reverse his ruling and dismiss the case filed by the rocket center. The Alabama Supreme Court in its ruling considered the full faith and credit clause under the U.S. Constitution that says one state should honor the court actions in another state.
“Because the New York judgment confirming the arbitration award against ASSEC (Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission) is entitled to full faith and credit and res judicata effect, we grant Space Race’s mandamus petition. The trial court is directed to vacate its order denying Space Race’s motion to dismiss and to enter an order granting that motion,” the Alabama Supreme Court ruled.
The rocket center had claimed it was immune from lawsuits during the litigation in the New York courts. But the Alabama Supreme Court did not render a decision on that issue.
“It is clear that the jurisdictional issue was indeed fully and fairly litigated in the New York trial court. In considering whether ASSEC is entitled to interstate sovereign immunity, the New York trial court first noted that some federal district courts have ruled that ASSEC is not an “arm of the state” for purposes of immunity under the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution and federal diversity jurisdiction,” Alabama Supreme Court ruling stated.
“Regardless of whether this Court agrees or disagrees with the New York trial court, it is clear that the parties and the court fully and fairly litigated the immunity issue,” the Alabama Supreme Court ruling states.
Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
