Chapter 19 - § 19.10 • VENUE FOR JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 19.10 • VENUE FOR JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS

Once it is determined to seek judicial action such as listed in the introduction, what is the venue for the filing of motions? If the motion is to stay litigation and compel arbitration, presumably the forum has been selected — the forum where the civil action is pending. In other circumstances, however, the answer is not so easy, nor so quickly resolved.

§ 19.10.1—Venue For Federal District Court Proceedings

Venue to Compel Arbitration

Section 4 of the FAA provides that a motion to compel arbitration may be filed in "any United States district court which, save for such [arbitration] agreement, would have jurisdiction under Title 28, in a civil action . . . of the subject matter of a suit arising out of the controversy between the parties." Thus, jurisdiction and venue are treated as fundamentally the same. The general venue statutes apply.⁷⁷ See § 19.3.2.

Where the arbitration agreement specifies the venue for the arbitration, under § 4, only the federal district court within which the locale lies has power to compel arbitration.⁷⁸ Other federal courts have taken a less restrictive view.⁷⁹

However, venue can be waived by the parties. For example, if a district court grants a motion to compel arbitration in another district and neither party objects, the objection to the venue probably is waived and may not thereafter be raised.⁸⁰

See also § 9.6.

If the FAA were applicable, and the motion to compel arbitration were filed in a state court, it is unclear as to whether § 4 would have any application to the proceeding.

Venue to Enforce a Subpoena

Section 7 of the FAA provides that subpoenas issued by the arbitrator may be enforced by the U.S. district court for the district in which the arbitrators, or a majority of them, are sitting. There is little authority as to what constitutes the district in which the arbitrator sits, except the place of hearing.

Venue for Motion to Stay Arbitration

There is no direct statutory authority as to venue for an action to stay an arbitration, e.g., on grounds the parties have not agreed to arbitrate. See Chapter 7. A New York federal district court held that FAA venue limitations on applications to compel arbitration did not apply to applications to stay arbitration.⁸¹ The court reasoned that a party should not be forced to dispute the validity of an arbitration agreement in the forum selected by the alleged agreement, which the party disputes.

Federal courts generally have remedial...