[author: Thaddeus Ewald]
The Eleventh Circuit recently held that a district court retained jurisdiction over a motion to confirm an arbitral award, even though the plaintiff had voluntarily dismissed its claims while the motion to confirm was pending.
After PTA-FLA and affiliated entities (“ClearTalk plaintiffs”) filed a series of lawsuits across multiple jurisdictions against ZTE USA, ZTE moved to compel arbitration and the disputes were addressed in a consolidated arbitration proceeding. The arbitration resulted in a zero dollar award for both sides meant to bind ZTE and the ClearTalk plaintiffs.
While ZTE’s motion to confirm the arbitral award was pending, PTA-FLA voluntarily dismissed its claims, but the district court confirmed the arbitral award based upon its supplemental jurisdiction to do so. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed, finding that the lower court’s diversity jurisdiction granted it power both to compel the arbitration and confirm the resulting award. It held that the zero dollar award did not destroy diversity jurisdiction because the amount in controversy was satisfied at the time the case was filed. Likewise, it decided that the voluntarily dismissal did not destroy diversity jurisdiction because the confirmation of an arbitral award is a collateral claim over which the district court had independent jurisdiction.
Furthermore, the Eleventh Circuit confirmed that the lower court had supplemental jurisdiction to confirm the award against those ClearTalk plaintiffs that were joined for the consolidated arbitration. In doing so, it confirmed that the exception to supplemental jurisdiction excluding claims by plaintiffs against parties added under certain Federal Rules applied only to the “original” plaintiffs, and not third-party, counter, or cross plaintiffs.
PTA-FLA, Inc. v. ZTE USA, Inc., No. 15-15159 (11th Cir. Dec. 15, 2016)
