Bolívar Collection Trial Was Improper Without Venezuela Present

A federal trial court abused its discretion by allowing Venezuela to be tried in absentia in a lawsuit over a collection of Simón Bolívar artifacts, a federal appeals court said.

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act requires courts to follow the default provisions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and they don’t provide for trial in absentia, Judge Embry J. Kidd said Thursday for the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

The artifacts of Bolívar, a founding father of several countries in South America, have been in Ricardo Devengoechea’s family for generations. Representatives of the Venezuelan government contacted ...