Court Opinion

ID: 9468630
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:19:21.410057+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:57.573878
License: Public Domain

DONALD RUSSELL, Circuit Judge:
The dissent to the denial of rehearing of the en banc opinion herein misconceives the real reason on which that opinion rests and, unfortunately, would find the rationale for such opinion to be a “lack of confidence in the North Carolina courts to enforce the Federal Arbitration Act.” The apparent basis for this conclusion is the discussion in the opinion of an issue which, though of importance, was not the decisive point. This issue related to whether the contract in this case was in interstate commerce. At the time the majority opinion was distributed the only decisions from a North Carolina appellate court on this question were the two decisions of the Court of Appeals of North Carolina cited in the majority opinion.1 These decisions held that a contract such as that involved here was not in interstate commerce. We noted that fact and did suggest that such a construction of the contract was plainly erroneous. Fortunately, the North Carolina Supreme Court, in a decision which reviewed the issue with painstaking care has corrected the error of the Court of Appeals.2 But the dissent seems to assume by this decision of the North Carolina Supreme Court, the ratio decidendi of the majority opinion is completely undermined. This is in error, as a reading of the majority opinion will demonstrate.
The real issue in this case was: Under what circumstances is it appropriate for a federal court to stay its hand in favor of adjudication by a state court, where the point is the application of federal law. We concluded in the majority opinion “that,” in the words of Will, “a federal court being seized of jurisdiction of a case, [is] not to stay its proceedings in deference to a state court action involving the same issues unless there [are] ‘exceptional circumstances’ justifying such stay . ...”3 And, as Justice Blackmun pointed out in what was the prevailing opinion in Will4 this requirement of “exceptional circumstances” is particularly rigorous if the “case turns on federal issues,” as it does here. That was the controlling rule accepted by the majority in this case. Applying it to the facts of this case, we concluded:
“Unlike Judge Will in Calvert, the district court [in this case] found ‘no exceptional circumstances’ justifying a departure from the Colorado River [Water Conservation Dist. v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 96 S.Ct. 1236, 47 L.Ed.2d 483] rule of ‘unflagging obligation’ of the federal court to maintain federal jurisdiction, despite the pendency in state court of a similar action between the parties. Without such finding of ‘exceptional circumstances,’ the district court had no right to stay the federal proceedings in this case.”
*938Such was the heart of our decision; such was the basis upon which it was decided. There was in this reasoning no expression of a “lack of confidence in North Carolina courts” faithfully to discharge their duty and we deplore any suggestion to that effect, especially because of the mutual respect that has always marked our relations with the North Carolina courts. It was, on the contrary, merely an application of what we conceived to be the prevailing opinion in Will.

. Burke Cty. Pub. Sch. Bd. of Ed. v. Shaver Partner., 46 N.C.App. 573, 265 S.E.2d 481 (1980); Bryant-Durham Elec. v. Durham County Hospital, 256 S.E.2d 529 (42 N.C.App. 351, 1979).

. Burke County Public Schools, etc. v. Shaver, etc., 279 S.E.2d 816 (1981).

. Pp. 943-44.

. Will v. Calvert Fire Ins. Co., 437 U.S. 655, 667-68, 98 S.Ct. 2552, 2559-60, 57 L.Ed.2d 504 (1978).