Stolt-nielsen S. a., et al. v. Animalfeeds International Corp. (559 U.S. 662)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 27, 2010 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 559 U.S. 662 · 130 S. Ct. 1758
- Decided
- April 27, 2010
- Term
- October Term 2009
- Vote
- 5–3
- Majority author
- Justice Alito
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Alito delivered the opinion of the Court. We granted certiorari in this case to decide whether imposing class arbitration on parties whose arbitration clauses are “silent” on that issue is consistent with the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U. S. C. § 1 et seq. I A Petitioners are shipping companies that serve a large share of the world market for parcel tankers — seagoing vessels with compartments that are separately chartered to customers wishing to ship liquids in small quantities. One of those customers is AnimalFeeds International Corp. (hereinafter AnimalFeeds), which supplies raw ingredients, such as fish oil, to animal-feed producers around the world. Animal-Feeds ships its goods pursuant to a standard contract known in the maritime trade as a charter party. Numerous charter parties are in regular use, and the charter party that AnimalFeeds uses is known as the “Vegoilvoy” charter party. Petitioners assert, without contradiction, that charterers like AnimalFeeds, or their agents — not the shipowners— typically select the particular charter party that governs their shipments. Accord, Trowbridge, Admiralty Law Institute: Symposium on Charter Parties: The History, Development, and Characteristics of the Charter Concept, 49 Tulane L. Rev. 743, 753 (1975) (“Voyage charter parties are highly standardized, with many commodities and charterers having their own…
Excerpt of a 45,922-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.