French court blocks massive $15B claim against Malaysia in century-old land dispute
French supreme court ends decade-long legal battle over historic Malaysian territory deal from 1800s. Court rejected Filipino heirs $15B claim related to old sultanate lands spanning Malaysia and Philippines
Frances top civil court made a game-changing decision about a long-running land-rights dispute. The court threw out a multi-billion dollar claim from the Sultan of Sulu heirs against Malaysia (which dates back to Nov-6-2024)
The dispute started with an old-school agreement: back in late-1800s European colonists made a deal with Sultan of Sulu for using his land that included parts of todays Philippines and Malaysia. Malaysia kept paying some money to the sultans family until about 10 years ago‚ when they stopped because of some not-so-friendly actions by sultanate supporters
This ruling will definitively settle the matter in favour of the Malaysian people
Last year a French court said the heirs should get $14‚9B; but that didnt last long. The latest ruling says that award is not valid which made Paul Cohen (the heirs lawyer) pretty unhappy - he thinks it makes no sense
The whole story has more twists: the Spanish judge who first gave that huge money award got into trouble with courts this year. Now the heirs arent giving up; theyre planning to go after Spain instead
- Malaysia stopped yearly payments in 2013
- Heirs tried getting Malaysian assets worldwide
- Paris court blocked the award enforcement
- Spanish arbitrator faced legal problems
The case shows how old colonial-era deals can cause modern-day headaches - the dispute spans three countries and almost 150 years of history
