Portland General Electric Co. v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.

OPINION

RAKOFF, Senior District Judge:

If two parties enter a contract that both requires arbitration of their disputes and allows impleader of a third party, must a party that did not initiate the impleader arbitrate a dispute that arises out of the same transaction at issue in the arbitration with the impleaded third party? We hold, on the facts of this case, that this question is really a question about the scope of the arbitration clause for the arbitrator to decide. Since, instead, the district court undertook to decide that question, we vacate and remand.

BACKGROUND

This appeal concerns the…