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Federal jurisdiction to vacate $zero award
December 12, 2005 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
If a party in federal court seeks to vacate a $zero award, does the court have jurisdiction?
Assume there is diversity of citizenship. The amount of the award was $0. The amount that will be sought in the next arbitration if the $0 award is vacated was $2,000,000.
The question is whether the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000 as required by the statute that grants federal courts jurisdiction.
The answer is yes.
So says the 11th Circuit. Peebles v. Merrill Lynch (11th Cir 12/12/2005).
An earlier case from the 9th Circuit reached the same result. Theis Research v. Brown & Bain (9th Cir 10/20/2004).
Source: Paul Secunda at Workplace Prof Blog: Federal Jurisdiction and the Vacation of Arbitration Awards
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