Texaco Exploration & Production Co. v. AmClyde Engineered Products Co.

EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge:

At issue in this appeal is whether to carve out an exception to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C. § 3, where, in admiralty cases, its enforcement would deny a party the ability to implead a third-party defendant pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 14(c). We conclude that the policy of liberal joinder in maritime cases embodied in Rule 14(c) does not supersede the statutory right to enforce contractual arbitration guaranteed by the FAA. The district court’s decision to the contrary must be reversed and remanded for the entry of a stay of…