Billionaire South Florida energy tycoon Harry Sargeant III is off the hook for costs in a lawsuit he voluntarily withdrew from federal court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit found that a rule reserved for similar scenarios didn’t apply in this case.

Sargeant, a former U.S. Marine Corps officer and fighter pilot, is a major Republican Party donor and runs a network of global companies focused on aviation, oil and asphalt shipping. One of his companies, International Oil Trading Co., supplied aircraft fuel to the U.S. military during the Iraq War.