SES vs Intelsat disputes ‘narrowing’
April 26, 2021
By Chris Forrester
There’s to be a hearing at Intelsat’s bankruptcy court tomorrow (April 27th) where the judge will hear motions including those from SES which is looking for the court to compel Intelsat to release more documents (and to hear the related Intelsat replies).
The SES requests are firmly denied by Intelsat.
However, the court was informed on April 23rd that the two contesting parties had continued to meet and confer “and have substantially narrowed their disputes regarding this motion” and had agreed “in principle” to mediation to assist in resolving disputes over the release of document which Intelsat claims are privileged insofar that many are letters and communications from Intelsat’s legal advisors.
Intelsat told the court that it believes that the April 27th hearing also will be a status update on the parties’ agreements and the path forward.
Intelsat continues to accuse SES of resorting to “overblown rhetoric” in its argument. SES has claimed 12,322 privileged documents and Intelsat 15,381.
Intelsat, in its motion to deny SES its application for more documents to be released says that the argument – at its heart – is simply a contract dispute over a core 31-page contract. “If SES had a case, it would not need over 230,000 documents and testimony from nearly 20 witnesses to try to prove that [we] breached a 31-page contract,” states Intelsat, and alleges that SES “wants additional discovery that it hopes will support its weak contractual case”.
Finally, Intelsat is objecting to the SES motion for the court to compel Intelsat’s CTO Bruno Fromont to be re-interviewed under deposition. Intelsat says that Fromont’s deposition extended beyond the regulatory seven hours “and then some” and that SES at the end of the deposition were happy with the time given and answers supplied and “had no further questions”.