Del. High Court Upholds $2B Judgment, Including Attorney Fees, in ‘Southern Peru’

The Delaware Supreme Court upheld Aug. 27 a $2 billion judgment in a shareholder lawsuit stemming from Southern Copper Corp.'s 2005 acquisition of a mining company from Grupo Mexico, its controlling stockholder (Americas Mining Corp. v. Michael Theriault).

The justices affirmed the chancery court’s October 2011 ruling that Grupo Mexico and directors of Southern Copper, then known as Southern Peru, caused Southern to pay an excessively high price for Grupo Mexico’s 99 percent interest in Minera Mexico (203 DER EE-7, 10/20/11).

The chancery judge’s damage award represented the $1.3 billion difference between what Southern paid for ...