Production Steel Company of Illinois v. SS Francois Ld
| Decision Date | 31 December 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 67 Civ. 525.,67 Civ. 525. |
| Citation | 294 F. Supp. 200 |
| Parties | PRODUCTION STEEL COMPANY OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff, v. SS FRANCOIS L. D., her engines, boilers, etc. and SS PARKDALE, her engines, boilers, etc., and Louis Dreyfus & Cie., Federal Commerce & Navigation Company, Westdale Shipping, Ltd. and Redwood Enterprises, Ltd., as joint owners of the SS Parkdale, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Bigham, Englar, Jones & Houston, New York City, for plaintiff, F. Herbert Prem, New York City, of counsel.
Healy & Baillie, New York City, for defendant, Louis Dreyfus & Cie., Richard T. O'Connell, New York City, of counsel.
Hill, Betts, Yamaoka, Freehill & Longcope, New York City, for defendant, Federal Commerce & Navigation Co., Donald B. Allen, New York City, of counsel.
In this suit by the purchaser of steel shipped from Wales, U.K., to Chicago against owners and charterers of ships for damages to the shipment in transit, defendant Federal Commerce & Navigation Company ("Federal" herein), disponent of one of the ships, the S.S. Francois, moves pursuant to 9 U.S.C. § 3 to stay trial with respect to it on the ground that plaintiff's claim against it is subject to arbitration. For the reasons stated below, the motion is denied.
The shipment of steel was loaded at Wales on the Francois on October 29, 1965 for shipment to plaintiff, or its subsidiary. At that time the ship was under charter from Federal to the Jordan International Co. of New Haven, Conn. ("Jordan"), not a party to this suit, pursuant to a Uniform General Charter agreement dated November 2, 1964, not actually signed by Jordan, which contained the following arbitration clause:
Upon loading of the cargo a bill of lading was issued by the carrier, bearing the following clause:
"SUBJECT TO ALL TERMS, CONDITIONS AND EXCEPTIONS OF CHARTER PARTY DATED 2nd, NOVEMBER 1964 AT NEW YORK."
The goods were transshipped at Montreal via another ship, the S.S. Parkdale, owned by co-defendants Westdale Shipping Ltd. and Redwood Enterprises Ltd. Plaintiff, the consignee and purchaser of the goods, claims that upon arrival of the goods in Chicago in December 1965 they were damaged, and instituted the present libel against both ships, their owners, and Federal. Federal pleaded the above-quoted arbitration clause as an affirmative defense and now seeks a stay on the ground that the quoted clause in the bill of lading had the effect of binding the plaintiff to arbitrate.
The fatal difficulty with Federal's contention, which requires that it be rejected, is its failure to recognize that the charter party contract and the bill of lading are two separate and distinct integrated contracts, and that...
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...Authority for Supply Commodities v. S.S. Capetan Costis I, 631 F.Supp. 1488, 1489 (S.D.N.Y.1986); Production Steel Co. v. S.S. Francois L.D., 294 F.Supp. 200, 201-02 (S.D.N.Y.1968). On the other hand, we have held that a broadly-worded arbitration clause which is not restricted to the immed......
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...that use of restrictive language in arbitration clause makes it difficult to bind nonsignatory); Production Steel Co. of Illinois v. SS Francois, L.D., 294 F.Supp. 200, 201 (S.D.N.Y.1968) (finding petitioner's "attempt to expand the arbitration clause beyond its plain meaning not only viola......
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