Until recently, the U.S. Supreme Court (Supreme Court) was
poised to decide a five-circuit split that would affect the way
many international companies conduct foreign arbitrations going
forward.
As background, section 1782(a) of Title 28 authorizes a district
court to order a person within the district to give testimony or
produce documents "for use in a proceeding in a foreign or
international tribunal."
After unsuccessful negotiations over
an indemnity claim made by Rolls-Royce against
Servotronics Inc. (Servotronics), the parties entered into a
private, binding arbitration in the United Kingdom. Servotronics
then filed a motion to subpoena relevant records held by Boeing
Company (Boeing) with the U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of Illinois, citing the authority bestowed on district
courts to assist in foreign discovery proceedings under 28 U.S.C.
§1782(a). Rolls-Royce and Boeing filed a motion to quash the
subpoena, arguing that §1782(a) does not
