Texas’ 14th District Court of Appeals in Houston has overturned a district court’s order denying arbitration in an employment dispute. In The Subsea Co. v. Payan, et al., No. 14–13–00849–CV (Tex. App – Houston [14th Dist.], September 18, 2014), an oil and gas specialty component manufacturer, The Subsea Company, hired a woman to serve as an account manufacturer.

The United States Supreme Court has been asked to review a Supreme Court of Texas decision overturning a $26 million arbitration award. In Robert L. Myer, et al. v. Americo Life, Inc., et al., No. 14-774, a divided Texas court overturned a unanimous arbitration award after the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) disqualified one party’s selected arbitrator due to partiality.

A Houston-based oil and gas company has withdrawn its mid-January request for arbitration before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”). On January 16th, Harvest Natural Resources, Inc. reportedly asked the ICSID to consider its case against the Government of Venezuela in an effort to protect its 32 percent stake in the Petrodelta joint oil and gas venture.

University of Georgia School of Law Assistant Professor Jaime Dodge has published “Privatizing Mass Settlement,” 90 Notre Dame L. Rev. 335 (2014); UGA Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2015-2. In her scholarly article, Professor Dodge examines privatized bilateral mass settlement as an alternative to both arbitration and multi-district litigation.