Procedural Posture

This document is a Decision on the Respondent's Request for Correction and Interpretation of the Fourth Partial Award on Track III, issued by the arbitral tribunal in PCA Case No. 2009-23 under Articles 35 and 36 of the 1976 UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. Following the issuance of the Track III Award, the Respondent (the Republic of Ecuador) filed a request seeking a limited correction of the Tribunal's computation of damages, or alternatively, an interpretation of the Award's computational guidance.

Parties' Positions

The Respondent argued that the dispositive amount of damages did not accurately reflect the Tribunal's stated methodology, identifying a discrepancy that it sought to correct by replicating the Tribunal's computations using the Respondent's Damages Model. The Claimants opposed the request, contending that Article 36 only permits the correction of unintentional technical errors. The Claimants further argued that the Tribunal's application of a 15% global reduction and its use of computational "workarounds" already accounted for any discrepancies, and that the Respondent's proposed corrections did not accurately reflect the Tribunal's reasoning.

Tribunal's Analysis and Findings

The Tribunal, by majority, determined that while the assessment of damages required only "reasonable precision," inadvertent failures to implement expressly stated substantive conclusions into the damages model constituted correctable errors under Article 36(1). Upon reviewing the calculations, the Tribunal identified two specific instances where it failed to properly implement its determinations into the Respondent's Damages Model. First, the Tribunal neglected to apply a mandated 30-day adjustment to the cut-off dates for certain Section 1782 proceedings. Second, it omitted a 100% reduction for legal fees and expenses related to media, public relations, and government relations, despite expressly excluding these costs in the Award.

Conversely, the Tribunal rejected the Respondent's proposed corrections regarding the Gibraltar Proceedings, the RICO Litigation, and the Lago Agrio Litigation. The Tribunal clarified that its original calculations in these areas, including specific workarounds and deductions applied to the real-world legal fees of the Ecuador Legal Team, accurately reflected its intended methodology and did not contain computational errors.

Decision and Relief

The Tribunal granted the Respondent's request for correction in part. Exercising its authority under Article 36 of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, the Tribunal corrected the Track III Award to reflect a revised principal damages amount of USD 175,720,152.45, down from the originally awarded USD 180,402,691.43. The Tribunal issued corresponding corrections to various sub-categories of damages and pre-award interest figures, confirming that the Track III Award, as corrected, remains final and binding.