The United States Magistrate Court in Tampa decreed on the 17th that Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc., a Florida deep sea recovery company, must hand back to Spain by the 24th of this month the 17 tons of treasure and artifacts the company salvaged from the shipwreck of the nineteenth century Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes off the Portuguese coast. Odyssey recovered approximately 595,000 gold and silver coins from the Atlantic Ocean wreckage it unearthed in 2007, with the total haul appraised in excess of $500 million, marking the single largest sunken treasure salvage ever. The Mercedes was transporting its valuable cargo as one of the vessels in a Spanish convoy in 1804 from Peru, a Spanish viceroyalty at the time, to Spain, when the aforesaid convoy was engaged in battle by a British squadron, and the explosion of the Mercedes followed shortly thereafter. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo also blocked Odyssey’s efforts at securing reimbursement from the Spanish government in the amount of $412,814 for its alleged expenditures regarding the storage and preservation of the Mercedes booty. During the course of Odyssey’s legal disputes with Spain and Peru over rights to the wreck’s bounty, the gold and silver were kept in a warehouse in Tampa.
The December 2009 ruling of United States District Court Judge Steven D. Merryday, Middle District of Florida (Tampa), affirmed Spain’s sovereign immunity pursuant to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, and the accompanying absence of jurisdiction by the court over the case. Hence, the court ordered the dismissal of Odyssey’s complaint. The latter party had contended that the final voyage of the Mercedes was overwhelmingly commercial in nature and, therefore, precluded invocation of sovereign immunity. Odyssey’s counsel had asserted further that under such circumstances the designation of the Mercedes as a warship was inapplicable. Judge Merryday directed that the treasure remain in Odyssey’s possession throughout the appellate process. The United States Court of Appeals in Atlanta rendered its decision on September 21st of last year, whereby it agreed with Spain’s contention concerning the Mercedes that the vessel was a sovereign asset and could not be the subject of a suit brought in America. The appellate court consequently refused to reverse the dismissal of the Odyssey action. Prior to the current magistrate judicial proceedings, the United States Supreme Court earlier this month upheld the lower court findings pertaining to Spain’s rightful ownership of the Mercedes bounty.