Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 270.0

529US1

Unit: $U37

[09-26-01 08:37:34] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 193 (2000)

195

Opinion of the Court

Susan S. Wagner argued the cause for respondent. With

her on the brief was Edward P. Meyerson.

Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case raises the issue whether the venue provisions of
the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA or Act), 9 U. S. C. §§ 9–11,
are restrictive, allowing a motion to conﬁrm, vacate, or mod-
ify an arbitration award to be brought only in the district in
which the award was made, or are permissive, permitting
such a motion either where the award was made or in any
district proper under the general venue statute. We hold
the FAA provisions permissive.

I

Petitioner Cortez Byrd Chips, Inc., and respondent Bill
Harbert Construction Company agreed that Harbert would
build a wood chip mill for Cortez Byrd in Brookhaven, Mis-
sissippi. One of the terms was that “[a]ll claims or disputes
between the Contractor and the Owner arising out [of] or
relating to the Contract, or the breach thereof, shall be de-
cided by arbitration in accordance with the Construction In-
dustry Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Asso-
ciation currently in effect unless the parties mutually agree
otherwise.” App. 52. The agreement went on to provide
that “[t]he award rendered by the arbitrator or arbitrators
shall be ﬁnal, and judgement may be entered upon it in ac-
cordance with applicable law in any court having jurisdiction
thereof,” ibid.; that the agreement to arbitrate “shall be spe-
ciﬁcally enforceable under applicable law in any court having
jurisdiction thereof,” ibid.; and that the law of the place
where the project was located, Mississippi, governed, id., at
60; 169 F. 3d 693, 694 (CA11 1999).

After a dispute arose, Harbert invoked the agreement by
a ﬁling with the Atlanta ofﬁce of the American Arbitration
Association, which conducted arbitration in November 1997