An environmental contamination case brought by 35 children living near a smelting facility in Peru can move forward despite a related foreign arbitration over indemnity, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has ruled.
On November 13, a unanimous panel affirmed a denial of the defendants’ motions for a mandatory or discretionary stay of the case during the arbitration. The court held that the case “relates to” arbitration, but is not “referable to” arbitration and thus a mandatory stay is not appropriate.
