Opinion ID: 495432
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Identifying Arbitral Jurisdiction

Text: 39 Tiger also claims that, because its complaint challenges the applicability of MPPAA's entire administrative scheme to this dispute, it cannot be compelled to arbitrate a question of arbitral jurisdiction. Tiger relies on the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in AT & T Technologies, Inc. v. Communications Workers of Am., 475 U.S. 643, 106 S.Ct. 1415, 89 L.Ed.2d 648 (1986) (AT & T Technologies ). Tiger argues that arbitrators derive their authority from MPPAA; if there is ambiguity concerning the applicability of its arbitration provisions, it [i]s for the court, not the arbitrator, to decide in the first instance whether the dispute [i]s to be resolved through arbitration. Id. at 651, 106 S.Ct. at 1420. 40 Tiger's argument fails for two reasons. First, we note that AT & T Technologies concerned a federal court's duty to interpret the arbitration clause of a collective bargaining agreement, and was not a case of a court addressing the arbitration provisions of a federal statute such as MPPAA. 15 In addition, we note that the district court did not compel Tiger to arbitrate a legal question of the arbitrator's jurisdiction. Rather, the district court considered the statutory issue and decided that the dispute here must be arbitrated under MPPAA section 1401. This decision was consistent with AT & T Technologies, where the Supreme Court emphasized that, in deciding whether a dispute is subject to arbitration, a court is not to rule on the potential merits of the underlying claims. 475 U.S. at 649, 106 S.Ct. at 1419. For this reason, Tiger's argument on the merits--that the plans have not demonstrated that Tiger's conduct fails to satisfy the good faith requirement of MPPAA section 1392(c), see generally Dorn's Transp., Inc. v. Teamsters Pension Trust Fund of Philadelphia & Vicinity, 787 F.2d 897, 902-03 (3d Cir.1986) (Dorn's ), 16 --has no bearing on our decision that the arbitrator must decide the merits initially.