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http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2006/02/28/whats-behind-the-ports-hysteria-a-lawsuit/ as retrieved on Mar 9, 2006 08:45:43 GMT.

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The Wall Street Journal’s Neil King and Greg Hitt report this morning that the hysteria surrounding the proposed takeover of five U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World has its origins in a lawsuit.

Eller & Co., a small stevedoring firm (the Law Blog enjoys that word so much we would like to write it again — stevedoring) based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is engaged in a legal dispute with its partner at the Port of Miami, Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation, the company that Dubai Ports World wants to acquire.

Eller has reportedly filed lawsuits in both the U.K. and the U.S. against P&O, and yesterday in London, a judge delayed approving the takeover of P&O by Dubai Ports because of Eller’s lawsuit.

Representing Eller in the lawsuits is Michael Kreitzer of Miami’s Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod. Kreitzer has also helped Eller’s lobbying effort in Washington. The story suggests that Eller was largely responsible for stirring the pot within Congress, which gave the P&O-Dubai Ports deal little attention until Eller started briefing its members.

Another attorney in Connecticut who helped Eller’s lobbying effort, Alan Neigher of Westport, Conn., told the WSJ: “We thought the purchase of P&O was a very bad idea. It endangered our operations in Miami. It raised enormous questions about port security — and still does.”

But it appears that although the national security concerns over the deal have been weaved into Eller’s legal strategy, the crux of its dispute with P&O is a contractual one having nothing to do with the Dubai deal. A 52-page complaint filed against P&O on February 17 seeks “to rectify egregious breaches of fiduciary duty, self-dealing and concealment of material facts” on P&O’s part.

P&O declined comment to the WSJ.