09-3682 Trustmark Ins. Co. v. John Hancock Life Ins. Co.

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Civil Procedure
Arbitration

An arbitration panel has authority to determine what a confidentiality agreement requires, when the agreement was closely related to an insurance arbitration that was already underway.

“The district judge also erred in concluding that the arbitrators are powerless to construe the confidentiality agreement. True, that agreement lacks its own arbitration clause, but the parties did agree to arbitrate their disputes about reinsurance. Arbitrators who have been appointed to resolve a commercial dispute are entitled to resolve ancillary questions that affect their task. See Howsam v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., 537 U.S. 79, 84 (2002). What’s more, the confidentiality agreement—a standard form in insurance arbitration, signed while the arbitration was under way—is closely related to the substance of the first arbitration and presumptively within the scope of the reinsurance contracts’ comprehensive arbitration clauses, which cover all disputes arising out of the original dispute. Cf. Sweet Dreams Unlimited, Inc. v. Dial-A-Mattress International, Ltd., 1 F.3d 639, 642 (7th Cir. 1993).”

Reversed.

09-3682 Trustmark Ins. Co. v. John Hancock Life Ins. Co.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Zagel, J., Easterbrook, J.

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