Firm asks court to reject U.S. brief in Spain treasure fight

Miami, Sep 11, 2009 (EFE via COMTEX) -- OMEX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The Florida treasure-hunting firm battling Spain in federal court over rights to more than $500 million in gold and silver coins is urging the judge to reject a motion filed by the U.S. government in support of Madrid's position.

In the 10-page document reviewed by Efe, Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. asks that in case the motion of the U.S. Justice Department favoring Spain is accepted, that the company be given 30 days to reply to this report.

The Justice Department document took the form of a friend-of-the-court brief submitted late last month to federal Judge Steven Merryday, who is weighing Odyssey's challenge to another judge's recommendation that the treasure be handed over to Spain.

The brief invokes a 1902 friendship treaty between Washington and Madrid.

The motion was presented four days before the Spanish government responded to Odyssey's submission challenging the recommendation of Magistrate Mark Pizzo that Spain should receive the 594,000 silver and gold coins.

In his June 3 report, Pizzo said Spain had demonstrated that the source of the treasure Odyssey salvaged from Atlantic waters in May 2007 was the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, a Spanish navy frigate destroyed in battle in 1804.

Pizzo concluded the wreck and its contents were subject to the principle of sovereign immunity and that the loot should be handed over to Madrid.

The Mercedes sank in action against a British fleet on Oct. 5, 1804, off the coast of southern Portugal, and Spain claims not only the vessel and cargo, but a right to preserve the gravesite of more than 250 Spanish sailors and citizens who went down with the frigate.

In its latest filing, Odyssey said that the "appropriate focus of the court" should be directed at the "jurisdiction established" by U.S. law in cases like this.

In that sense, it said that the jurisdiction of this country should not be conditioned by the administration, which argues that the matter be resolved in the same way that Spanish courts would resolve a case in which a U.S. ship was involved.

The motion of the Justice Department said that with Spain's support, the United States seeks to make sure that its own warships that are sunk and their crews lost be treated as sovereign vessels and honored tombs not subject to exploration or exploitation without authorization.

Spain's lawyer in the case, James Goold, said the Justice Department brief proves Washington has "great interest" in preserving international principles and that the U.S. government supports Pizzo's recommendation.

Odyssey contends that Pizzo ignored "clear and convincing evidence of the commercial nature of the Mercedes' mission at the time of her demise," a factor the firm "believes legally nullifies the claim to sovereign immunity of that vessel."

"The majority of the coins aboard the Mercedes were merchant-owned, commercial cargo being shipped as freight for a fee and were never owned by Spain," Odyssey maintains.

For their part, in a letter addressed last month to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder, four Republican congressmen from Florida urged the Justice Department to avoid taking any position in the litigation and to allow the court to reach its own verdict.

The missive was signed by Reps. Gus M. Bilirakis, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Connie Mack and Vern Buchanan. EFE

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