Earlier this week, the Fifth Circuit handed down an opinion holding that personal jurisdiction did not exist (link is to .pdf) as to several Russian companies that had been sued by a Texan company for allegedly breaching an agreement to produce natural gas from the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field. Since the contract was executed in Russia and performance would have taken place in Russia, the Court affirmed a trial court ruling that no personal jurisdiction existed against the Russian defendants.
Why do we care about this? Well, because it’s Spring Break and there’s not much else going on in the world of Texas arbitrability law. Also, the contract in question contained an arbitration clause requiring arbitration in Russia pursuant to Russian law, a fact the Court noted in its personal jurisdiction analysis. The Russians, of course, had also moved to compel arbitration, but since their plea to the jurisdiction was granted the Court did not reach the arbitration point.
Moncrief Oil Int’l, Inc. v. OAO Gazprom, et al., ___ F.3d. ___ (5th Cir. 2007) (Cause No. 06-10552)
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