FEDERAL COURT HOLDS IT HAS NO AUTHORITY TO TRANSFER ARBITRATION CONFIRMATION ACTIONS TO STATE COURT
Subway International B.V., a Netherlands-based franchisor of Subway sandwich stores, brought three actions in Connecticut federal court, seeking enforcement of arbitration awards secured against certain Greek franchisees for breach of their respective franchise agreements. The franchisees had each separately brought actions to vacate the awards in New York State Supreme Court, and they each moved to transfer the Connecticut cases filed by Subway to that venue. The Court denied each of the motions to transfer, holding that it had no authority under federal procedural statutes to transfer actions to state court. In one of the actions, however, the Court granted a motion to dismiss for insufficient service of process. Subway Int’l B.V. v. Cere, Case No. 10-01713 (USDC D. Conn. Aug. 11, 2011), Subway Int’l B.V. v. P. Bletas and J. Bletas, Case No. 10-01714 (USDC D. Conn. Aug. 11, 2011); and Subway Int’l B.V. v. P. Bletas, Case No. 10-01715 (USDC D. Conn. Aug. 11, 2011).
This post written by John Pitblado.
