Appeals Court Revives Dispute Over US Army Base in Afghanistan

A contract appeals board must reconsider whether the US Army Corps of Engineers owes Afghanistan real property lessors $28 million in unpaid rent, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Friday.

The Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals’ rejection of the claim erroneously disregarded a 2021 decision by an Afghanistan court which backed the lessors’ property ownership, the appeals court said. The board also improperly concluded that the “act of state doctrine” barred the lessors’ claim, the Federal Circuit said in a per curiam opinion to vacate and remand.

The act of state doctrine bars courts from ...