Court Opinion

ID: 9598396
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:08:28.334276+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:46:20.392835
License: Public Domain

BEAM, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I disagree with the court’s conclusion that the nature of PRM’s claims are connected to the contract and demonstrate the requisite relationships between persons, wrongs, and issues necessary to compel arbitration. The arbitration clause tangentially at issue here purports to cover “all disputes arising under” a technology licensing agreement between PRM and Primenergy.
The problem is, insofar as this appeal is concerned, that PRM asserts only a garden variety tort claim against Kobe Steel that does not directly touch either the subject matter or the geographic reach of the PRM/Primenergy contract itself. Indeed, according to PRM, the tortious activities of Kobe Steel deal with transactions beyond the scope, and purposefully outside of, the licensing authority granted Primenergy. To be sure, it is axiomatic that in order for Kobe Steel to have engaged in the alleged misconduct it must have had knowledge of the 1999 Agreements but that is the extent of the allegations’ involvement with those agreements.
*838This is clearly not the situation discussed in Ross v. American Express Co., 547 F.3d 137, 148 (2d Cir.2008), one of the principal cases relied upon by the court. Nor does PRM allege the sort of interdependent and concerted misconduct discussed in Donaldson sufficient to place the claims within the scope of the arbitration clause. Donaldson Co., Inc. v. Burroughs Diesel, Inc., 581 F.3d 726, 733-34 (8th Cir.2009) (discussing the application of the concerted misconduct test in MS Dealer Serv. Corp. v. Franklin, 177 F.3d 942, 945, 948 (11th Cir.1999), wherein the plaintiff alleged that a non-signatory worked hand-in-hand with the signatory in a fraudulent scheme intertwined with and involving the obligations imposed by the contract containing the arbitration clause). Certainly, because of Kobe Steel’s allegedly surreptitious negotiations with Primenergy seeking to circuitously obtain the benefits of PRM’s technology for use in Japan, Kobe Steel is not “a complete stranger to the plaintiffs’ ... agreements.” Ross, 547 F.3d at 148. But, Kobe Steel is virtually so. The PRM/Primenergy agreements do not mention Kobe Steel and perform no function whatsoever relating to the supposed Kobe Steel/Primenergy “exclusive collaboration” agreement. And, Kobe Steel was never a participant in the PRM/Primenergy deal.
Thus, the concerted misconduct requirements of Donaldson, the case that mainly drives the court’s analysis in this appeal, are almost totally absent. 581 F.3d at 733-34. Accordingly, as in Donaldson, this litigation, too, lacks sufficient allegations of pre-arranged collusive behavior, and Kobe Steel’s arbitration demand should be rejected. Id. at 735.
I dissent.