Courts May ‘Look Through’ Petition to Substance of Dispute in Determining Jurisdiction, 2nd Cir. Rules

NEW YORK — Pursuant to U.S. Supreme Court precedent, a federal court may “look through” to the underlying substance of a dispute in determining whether it has jurisdiction to consider a petition filed pursuant to Section 10 of the Federal Arbitration Act, a federal appellate court has ruled.

In a Sept. 11 ruling, the appellate court cited to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Vaden v. Discovery Bank, which states that if the underlying dispute implicates federal law, then federal courts have authority to decide the petition.

In June 2013, Drew Doscher, the former co-head of sales and trading for The …