This Wednesday the 27th, in another development of the Eldorado case, Judge Alexandre Lazzarini, of the Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJ-SP), voted against the annulment of the arbitration between J&F Investimentos and Paper Excellence (PE).
During the session of the 1st Reserved Chamber of Business Law of the TJ-SP, Lazzarini cast the second vote in the second instance against the appeal presented by J&F, after losing an arbitration procedure in 2021. The result remains in favor of PE in the dispute for control of the pulp producer, which has been ongoing for five years.
Furthermore, the judge agreed with the rapporteur of the case, José Benedito Franco de Godoi, in condemning J&F for bad faith litigation, imposing a fine of R$ 30 million.
In the first vote, held last week, according to Franco de Godoi, the Batista brothers’ holding company had committed bad faith litigation because, according to him, it distorted the truth of the facts before the courts; acted recklessly throughout the process, provoking frequent appeals only to delay the decision; he raised the theory of hacking without presenting evidence that it had occurred; and he cast doubt on the arbitrator based on what the presenter considered ordinary legal work.
Despite the continuation of the vote, the third judge to vote, Azuma Nishi, requested a postponement of the process, although a new date for the continuation of the trial was not established.
The First Reserved Chamber of Law is made up of five judges and, depending on Nishi’s vote, the second instance trial could be closed. This would again open the way to transfer control of Eldorado to Paper, at least as decided by the TJ-SP.
To carry out the transfer, the Indonesian multinational must still revoke a decision by federal judge Rogério Favreto, of the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region (TRF-4), in a popular action filed in May by the lawyer and former mayor of Chapecó (SC), Luciano José Bulligon.
In this decision, Favreto suspended the acquisition of rural properties by Eldorado Brasil Celulose, Paper Excellence and CA Investment Brazil S/A, the company formed by PE to buy Eldorado, until they present authorizations required by law from the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) and the National Congress, in accordance with the procedures established by law.
