Court Opinion

ID: 9468252
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:09:22.903891+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:45.918890
License: Public Domain

WIDENER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent for the reasons sufficiently stated by Judge Hall, and I would add a word in joining his opinion.
As Judge Hall has pointed out for State court decisions, the only federal courts of appeal to consider the question have uniformly decided that cases under the Federal Arbitration Act must be decided by State courts when called upon. Commercial Metals Co. v. Balfour, Guthrie & Co., Ltd., 577 F.2d 264 (5th Cir. 1978); Robert Lawrence Co. v. Devonshire Fabrics, Inc., 271 F.2d 402 (2d Cir. 1959), cert. dismissed, 364 U.S. 801, 81 S.Ct. 27, 5 L.Ed.2d 37.
As the opinion of the majority does not emphasize, this is not, and may not be, a case of federal question jurisdiction. We have so held only recently in Sine, et al v. Local No. 992, etc., 644 F.2d 997 (4 Cir., 1981), and the statute specifically so provides, 9 U.S.C. § 4. Thus, the case before us must be based on diversity jurisdiction, as it is.
*947In each diversity case where one party prefers a federal forum and the other a State forum, there is apt to be a race to the courthouse. There is nothing iniquitous about it, and to hold as the majority does that preferring a State forum somehow offends does not give effect, I think, either to Article VI of the Constitution or of the latest statement of the Supreme Court on that subject. Article VI, in pertinent part, provides:
“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; . . . . ”
As it has said before, in Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539, 549, 101 S.Ct. 764, 770, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981), the Court stated:
“State judges as well as federal judges swear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, and there is no reason to think that because of their frequent differences of opinion as to how that document should be interpreted that all are not doing their mortal best to discharge their oath of office.”
That statement applies, of course, to the construction of federal statutes.
The mere fact that one of the parties here does not desire arbitration, while the other does, does not mean that the party who desires arbitration is necessarily right and the party who opposes it is necessarily wrong. It is simply that, as in every law suit, there is a difference of opinion.
Indeed, if there is any forum shopping in this case and if such is somehow or another iniquitous, which I doubt, it is equally on the part of the federal plaintiff. The federal plaintiff (Mercury) was a State court defendant. Even assuming that the North Carolina Supreme Court would find that the contract involved here was not in interstate commerce, and thus the Federal Arbitration Act would not apply because of the two intermediate court decisions,1 there is no reason given nor is any speculation possible that the North Carolina courts would not have enforced the North Carolina Arbitration Act had the federal plaintiff (Mercury) only requested it in that proceeding.2 Thus, the federal plaintiff would have already achieved the arbitration it now so zealously asks us to impose on the other party. Because it did not take the simple and direct route of previously getting the arbitration that it now says it wants, the only logical conclusion is that it wished a federal forum to decide the question of whether or not to arbitrate as well as to review the decision of the arbitrators.
In line with these thoughts, I note that the owner, the contractor, and the architect, each of whom blames the others for the difficulties at hand, were all parties in the State court proceeding and thus complete relief could have been given. All are not parties to the federal proceeding and thus complete relief may not be given.
When I add these reasons to those given by Judge Hall, I am more firmly of opinion that the district court did not abuse its discretion in awaiting action on the part of the State court, which is all that it did. The action of the district court is nothing more nor less than the exercising of control of its own docket, in which matter it should be allowed rather wide latitude instead of *948being strictly circumscribed as the majority would have it.
I am authorized to say that Judge HALL joins in this opinion.

. Since Commissioner v. Estate of Bosch, 387 U.S. 456, 87 S.Ct. 1776, 18 L.Ed.2d 886 (1967), intermediate State court decisions are not bind- ' ing, but should receive proper regard. Wright on Federal Courts, 2nd Ed., § 58.

. The North Carolina statute § l-567.3(a) provides that “On application of a party showing an agreement... [to arbitrate] the court shall order the parties to proceed with arbitration .... ” And subsection (c) of the same code section provides that, for pending litigation, the application “shall be made” in the pending case. (Italics added)
To emphasize that there is no difference here except as to forum, even the arbitrator, State and federal, would be chosen from the panel, for the contract provides for appointment by the American Arbitration Association. 9 U.S.C. § 5; N.C.G.S. § 1-567.4; Construction Industry Arbitration Rules, American Arbitration Association, 1981, §§ 5-13 incl.