Venue of Motion to Compel

Dispute Resolution Journal, Aug-Oct 2005

FAA PROCEDURE

The 10th Circuit held that a motion to compel arbitration could be heard only in a district court in the jurisdiction where the arbitration is to take place.

In this case, Qwest moved to compel arbitration in Colorado even though the parties' agreement named Washington, D.C., as the site for arbitration. The district court in Colorado refused to hear the case, ruling that only a court in Washington, D.C., had authority under the Federal Arbitration Act to order the arbitration.

Section 4 of the FAA states that parties seeking to compel arbitration "may petition any United States district court which, save for such agreement, would have jurisdiction under Title 28, in a civil action." The 10th Circuit sided with the 3rd, 6th and 7th Circuits, which have held that § 4 limits motions to compel arbitration to a court in "the district in which the petition for an order directing such arbitration is filed." The 10th Circuit rejected the 9th Circuit's approach, which allows a district court to compel arbitration in any jurisdiction because the FAA only confines arbitration to the district in which the petition to compel is filed; it does not require that the petition be filed at the arbitral situs stated in the contract.

The 10th Circuit said that the 9th Circuit's approach fails to give effect to the language in FAA § 4 directing that arbitration be in accordance with the terms of the agreement and that a district court can order arbitration only within its own district. The court said, "Any other result renders meaningless the § 4 mandate that arbitration and the order compelling-arbitration issue from the same district."

Ansari v. Qwest Communications Corp., No. 04-1262, 2005 WL 1625225 (10th Cir. July 12, 2005).