United States Ninth Circuit

In a case arising out of the 2000-2001 California energy crisis, an order remanding the case to state court is reversed and remanded where: 1) review of a district court's decision to decline an exercise of supplemental jurisdiction is not barred by 28 U.S.C. section 1447(d); 2) in light of certain Supreme Court precedent, there is jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. section 1291 to review the remand order; and 3) defendant, a Canadian corporation that markets and distributes electric power, is an organ of British Columbia, and thus falls within the definition of "foreign state" under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and is entitled to a federal bench trial.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/04/2007
• Decided 07/22/2008
• Published 07/22/2008

Judges

• MICHAEL DALY HAWKINS, Circuit Judge:, Before:  ROBERT E. COWEN,HAWKINS and N. RANDY SMITH, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Mark B. Stern (briefed and argued) and Alisa B. Klein (briefed), United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for the United States as amicus curiae., Roy T. Englert, Jr. (briefed), Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck and Untereiner, Washington, D.C., for the Province of British Columbia as amicus curiae., Margaret K. Pfeiffer (briefed), Sullivan and Cromwell, Washington, D.C., for the Government of Canada as amicus curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• David C. Frederick (briefed and argued), Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans and Figel, Washington, D.C., for the defendant-appellant., Annadel A. Almendras (briefed and argued) and Song J. Hill (briefed), Office of the Attorney General of the State of California, San Francisco, CA, for the plaintiff-appellee.