FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT REFUSES TO CONFIRM ARBITRATOR’S NON-FINAL ORDERS AUTHORIZING CLASS ARBITRATION AND CERTIFYING CLASS
Petitioners filed a motion to confirm an arbitrator’s decision that an arbitration could be conducted on a class-wide basis and a further order granting class certification. The court denied the request on ripeness grounds, finding that it was premature. The court explained that governing case law permits confirmation of non-final orders only in limited circumstances, such as where the failure to grant review would cause hardship to a party. Petitioner’s stated hardship—that one defendant (of many) was seeking declaratory relief from another federal district court that the arbitration agreements did not permit class arbitration—was insufficient because the referenced case was first-filed and, furthermore, only involved one of many defendants. Pryor v. Overseas Admin. Servs., Ltd., et al., Case No. 10-01930 (USDC N.D. Cal. Dec. 7, 2011).
This post written by Ben Seessel.
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