Comments
On March 30, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued its judgment on appeal in Servotronics, Inc. v. The Boeing Co. Servotronics, the appellant in the case, sought under 28 U.S.C. 1872 to obtain testimony from employees of Boeing, the appellee, who are residents in South Carolina, for use in an arbitration taking place in the United Kingdom. The district court ruled that the arbitral panel was not a "foreign tribunal" under section 1782, a statute which provides for "assistance to foreign and international tribunals and to litigants before such tribunals." This meant that the District Court could not grant the appellant's application to obtain the testimony of the employees. The Court of Appeals reversed. In its reasoning, the Court explained that the statute "manifests Congress' policy to increase international cooperation by providing U.S. assistance in resolving disputes before not only foreign courts, but before all foreign and international tribunals." In its view, the policy behind section 1782 "was intended to contribute to the orderly resolution of disputes both in the United States and abroad, elevating the importance of the rule of law and encouraging a spirit of comity between foreign countries and the United States." The case was remanded to the District Court for decision in line with the appellate judgment.