United States Ninth Circuit

In proceedings arising from an individual's death from high altitude sickness while on an expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro, district court's dismissal of petitioner-guided expedition company's petition to compel arbitration for lack of subject matter jurisdiction is reversed where the district court erred both when it: 1) applied a preponderance of the evidence standard to its determination of whether petitioner met the "amount in controversy" requirement for diversity jurisdiction, when the legal certainty standard in fact applied; and 2) when it held that a clause in the arbitration agreement limiting damages to $16,831 precluded federal jurisdiction, because the existence of a valid defense to plaintiff's claim on the face of the complaint did not preclude jurisdiction.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/31/2010
• Published 03/31/2010

Judges

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel