In Brennan v. Opus Bank, 796 F.3d 1125 (9th Cir. 2015), the Ninth Circuit held that express incorporation of American Arbitration Association rules in an arbitration clause constitutes clear and unmistakable evidence that the contracting parties agreed to arbitrate arbitrability. Applying the Supreme Court’s decision in Rent-A-Center, West, Inc. v. Jackson, 561 U.S. 63, 130 S. Ct. 2772 (2010), the Ninth Circuit held that incorporation of such rules was a delegation provision severable from the…
In Int’l Energy Ventures Mgmt., L.L.C. v. United Energy Grp., Ltd., 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 14773 (5th Cir.…
In Goldman, Sachs & Co. v. Athena Venture Partners, L.P., No. 13-3461 (3d Cir. Sept. 29, 2015), the…
On August 4, 2015, the D.C. Circuit issued a decision in Chevron Corp. v. Republic of Ecuador, 795 F.3d 200 (D.C. Cir. 2015), affirming the district court’s deference to the arbitrators’ decision on arbitrability for purposes of finding subject matter jurisdiction under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”) to confirm an international arbitral award against Ecuador. The D.C. Circuit also upheld the district court’s rejection of a challenge to the award’s confirmation under the Convention on the Recognition…
In Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. v Cahill, No. 14-7032 (10th Cir. May 26, 2015), the U.S. Court of Appeals…
In a July 28, 2015 decision in Katz v. Cellco Partnership, dba Verizon Wireless, 794 F.3d 341 (2d Cir. 2015),…
The U.S. Supreme Court has once again spoken decisively in favor of class action waivers in arbitration agreements. In DirecTV, Inc. v. Imburgia, the Court explained in no uncertain terms that “[t]he Federal Arbitration Act is a law of the United States, and Concepcion is an authoritative interpretation of that Act. Consequently, the judges of every State must follow it.” The Court thus reversed a decision of the California Court of Appeals that invalidated an…
In NS United Kaiun Kaisha Ltd. v. Cogent Fibre Inc., No. 15 Civ. 1784, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS…
In Sanchez v. Valencia Holding Company, LLC, No. S199119 (Cal. Sup. Ct. Aug. 3, 2015), the California Supreme Court clarified…
The much awaited text of the TPP has been released. As anticipated, the Investment Chapter (Chapter 9) sets out protections for investors of each TPP State and the mechanism for investors to bring claims in the event a TPP State fails to comply with these protections. A summary of those protections and the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism is set out below. What is protected? The TPP Investment Chapter protects investments made by investors of…