COURT DENIES MOTION TO ORDER DEPOSITION IN CHICAGO FOR USE IN A PRIVATE, FOREIGN ARBITRATION
In connection with a train derailment in Graniteville, South Carolina, Norfolk Southern Corp., Norfolk Southern Railway Co., and General Security Insurance Co. (collectively, “movants”) sought an order to require the deposition in Chicago of the former counsel to ACE Bermuda Ltd. for use in a private arbitration in England. The movants claimed that 28 U.S.C. Section 1782 allowed the Illinois district court to order such a deposition, however, Section 1782 does not explicitly address private arbitrations. In denying the motion, the court interpreted the reference to “arbitral tribunals” in Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., 542 U.S. 241 (2004), to include state-sponsored arbitrations but exclude purely private arbitrations and the court agreed with pre-Intel circuit court decisions that Section 1782’s legislative history did not support the inclusion of private arbitral tribunals within the scope of the statute. In re Norfolk S. Corp., Case No. 09-3092 (USDC N.D. Ill. June 15, 2009).
This post written by Dan Crisp.
