Authenment v. Ingram Barge Co.

878 F. Supp. 2d 672, 2012 WL 2879405, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97250
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedJuly 13, 2012
DocketCivil Action No. 10-2107
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 878 F. Supp. 2d 672 (Authenment v. Ingram Barge Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Authenment v. Ingram Barge Co., 878 F. Supp. 2d 672, 2012 WL 2879405, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97250 (E.D. La. 2012).

Opinion

[675]*675 ORDER & REASONS

JANE TRICHE MILAZZO, District Judge.

Before the Court is Defendant West of England Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association’s Motion to Stay Pending Arbitration. (R. Doc. 88-1.) For the following reasons, the Motion to Stay is GRANTED. Plaintiff is compelled to arbitrate his claims against West of England Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association, and the above-captioned matter is STAYED pending that arbitration.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff alleges that he developed acute myelogenous leukemia as a result of his exposure to dangerous products while working as a tankerman and pilot for several towboat owners between 1977 and 1994. (R. Doc. 26., IHIV-VIII.) One of these companies was Gulf Intracoastal Towing (“Gulf’), which employed Plaintiff from 1986 to 1990. (Id. ¶ VII.) Gulf was dissolved in 1994 and released from this case on April 6, 2011. (R. Docs. 51-52.) Subsequently, Plaintiff amended his Complaint, naming “West of England P & I” as insurer of Gulf as a defendant. (R. Doc. 57.) In reality, the West of England Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association (Luxembourg) (“West of England”) was the protection and indemnity (P & I) insurer of Gulf from March 7, 1986 until February 20, 1991. Plaintiff’s Complaint invoked this Court’s admiralty jurisdiction. (R. Doe. 26, ¶ I.)

West of England is a P & I club that provides insurance pursuant to a Certificate of Entry (“Certificate”). One court has described P & I insurance as follows:

[T]he insurer is an association of shipowners who engage in providing insurance. The association is referred to as the club, and the insured is the member. To obtain coverage, the member enrolls a vessel with the club. The rules of the club and the quotation are the contract of insurance.

Triton Lines, Inc. v. Steamship Mut. Underwriting Assoc. (Bermuda) Ltd., 707 F.Supp. 277, 278 (S.D.Tex.1989). In this case, the Certificate outlines the particulars of the insurance coverage, and these particulars apply to all members. The Certificate expressly adopts West of England’s rules of association (“the Rules”) as governing Gulfs insurance coverage. (R. Doc. 88-2.) Taken together, the Rules and Certificate constitute the applicable insurance contract. Here, the Rules include both a choice of English law provision and an arbitration agreement.

On October 3, 2011, West of England filed a Motion to Stay Pending Arbitration. (R. Doc. 88-1.) Plaintiff opposed the Motion on October 11, 2011(R. Doc. 90), and West of England filed its Reply on October 20, 2011 (R. Doc. 93). The Court took the Motion under submission on October 19, 2011. For the following reasons, the motion is granted, and the case is stayed pending arbitration.

LAW & ANALYSIS

This Court addressed a similar situation in Anthony Todd v. Steamship Mut. Underwriting Assoc., Ltd., No. 08-1195, 2011 WL 1226464 (E.D.La. March 28, 2011)1 [676]*676West of England argues that under Todd it is entitled to have the case stayed pending arbitration. It contends that the present case is factually indistinguishable from Todd, and no reason exists for the Court to rule differently here. In contrast, Plaintiff argues that staying the case is inappropriate because West of England has not provided a complete copy of the insurance contract or the Rules of Association. Additionally, Plaintiff urges the Court to distinguish this case from Todd and decline to enforce the arbitration agreement as contrary to the public policy of Louisiana. As explained below, the Court finds portions of Todd distinguishable from the facts of this case. The most important of these distinctions is that the Court sits in admiralty in the current case, while in Todd it sat in diversity. Nonetheless, the Court finds that the arbitration agreement in this case is enforceable against Plaintiff.

Regardless of the jurisdictional distinction, portions of the Todd opinion guide the Court’s analysis here. In Todd, the Court followed a three-step analysis in finding that arbitration was appropriate. First, the Court examined a complete copy of the applicable rules to determine whether the agreement clearly addressed whether a non-signatory could be compelled to arbitrate. Id. at *3. Second, the Court analyzed what law applied to determine whether the plaintiff must arbitrate. Id. at *4. In making this determination, the Court especially focused on the choice of law clause in the policy selecting English law as the governing law. Id. at *5. Lastly, the Court considered whether all of the plaintiffs causes of action fell within the arbitration provision. Id. at *8. The Court follows the same three-step analysis in the current case.

I. The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards and the Federal Arbitration Act

The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“the Convention”) governs cases in which a party seeks to compel arbitration outside of the United States. Todd v. Steamship Mut. Underwriting Ass’n (Bermuda) Ltd., 601 F.3d 329, 332 n. 4 (5th Cir.2010). The United States joined the Convention in 1970. Aggarao v. MOL Ship Mgmt. Co., Ltd., 675 F.3d 355, 366 (4th Cir.2012). Congress implemented the Convention by enacting Chapter 2 of Title 9 of the United States Code (“the Convention Act”). Id.; 9 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq. (West 2012). The Supreme Court has explained that “[t]he goal of the Convention was to encourage the recognition and enforcement of commercial arbitration agreements in international contracts and to unify the standards by which agreements to arbitrate are observed and arbitral awards are enforced in the signatory countries.” Id. (quoting Scherk v. Alberto-Culver Co., 417 U.S. 506, 520 n. 15, 94 S.Ct. 2449, 41 L.Ed.2d 270 (1974)). The Convention applies to arbitration agreements between citizens of nations that are signatories to the Convention. The United States, Luxembourg, and England are all signatories. 31 Daniel R. Coquillette et ah, Moore’s Federal Practice-Civil § 909.02 (3d ed. 2012); Contracting States, The New York Arbitration Convention (June 25, 2012), http://www.newyorkconvention.org/ contracting-states.

[677]*677“The Convention Act incorporates the entire Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) to the extent that the two do not conflict.” Todd, ’2011 WL 1226464, at *2 (citing 9 U.S.C. § 208). The FAA governs the validity and enforceability of an agreement to arbitrate in the United States and explicitly applies to any maritime transaction. 9 U.S.C.A. § 2. A district court’s power to order arbitration under the FAA, however, is limited to arbitrations that will take place “[wjithin the district in which the petition for an order directing such arbitration is filed.” Todd, 601 F.3d at 332 n. 4. As a result, the Convention governs when a party seeks to compel arbitration outside of the United States. Id.

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Bluebook (online)
878 F. Supp. 2d 672, 2012 WL 2879405, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97250, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/authenment-v-ingram-barge-co-laed-2012.