WASHINGTON â€" The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear Argentina’s appeal of a lower court’s decision in favor of hedge funds that held bonds on which the country had defaulted.
As is their custom, the justices offered no reasons for turning down the appeal, Argentina v. NML Capital, 12-1494. The court’s brief order noted that Justice Sonia Sotomayor took no part in the matter, but it did not say why.
The appeal was from an interim decision last year from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, and the justices may yet have an opportunity to consider whether to hear a separate appeal from the lower court’s final decision, issued in August.
The case was brought by bondholders who were owed more than $1.3 billion and who refused to accept reduced payments after Argentina’s default in 2001. Most of the nation’s other creditors accepted such payments in later debt swaps.
The Second Circuit ruled that Argentina had violated a contractual promise to treat all bondholders equally.
