In one of the few cases of its kind nationwide, TDR recently helped firm client Hospira, Inc. secure an injunction prohibiting a foreign corporation from forcing Hospira into arbitration in Geneva, Switzerland.

Netherlands-based Therabel Pharma, N.V. filed the arbitration before the International Commerce Commission’s International Court of Arbitration (the “ICC”), naming Hospira and one of its wholly owned subsidiaries as respondents.  Hospira claimed that it was not a proper party in the arbitration because only its subsidiary was a signatory to the contract containing an arbitration clause.  Accordingly, Hospira filed a lawsuit in the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois seeking to enjoin Therabel from forcing it to arbitrate before the ICC.

On June 11, 2013, the court rejected Therabel’s attempt to dismiss Hospira’s lawsuit for lack of personal jurisdiction.  On July 19, 2013, the court ruled in Hospira’s favor on the merits.  In a 31-page ruling granting Hospira all of the relief it requested, Chief Judge Ruben Castillo found that because Hospira was not a signatory to the contract Therabel could not force it to arbitrate before the ICC.  Judge Castillo also rejected Therabel’s attempt to bind Hospira to the arbitration clause through the alternative legal theories of veil-piercing, alter-ego, assumption and estoppel.

A copy of the court’s jurisdictional decision can be found hereA copy of the court’s memorandum opinion and order granting Hospira a preliminary and permanent injunction can be found here.  TDR attorneys Christopher D. Liguori, Mark H. Horwitch, Brian C. Haussmann and Katherine M. O’Brien represented Hospira in this action.