America's Cup - ISAF Jury lose first round in Oracle crewmember action

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZL on 12 Jun 2016 A judge in the District Court in San Francisco has thrown out a bid by the International Jury and ISAF (now rebadged as World Sailing) to have an action against them dismissed, as being out of time.

The case is one of two bought by former Oracle Team USA crew member, Matthew Mitchell. The first has already been dismissed against Oracle Team for wrongful dismissal, or rather that another crew member Simeon Tienpont should have been let go by the team at the same time as Mitchell, as Tienpont had admitted being involved in the same boat tampering activities.

This second action seeks to have the decision, or Award, lifted that was made against him by the international Jury.

The move for early dismissal of the case hinged around the fact that Mitchell had waited for over two years before attempting to serve the five Jury members and the International Sailing Federation, and that he had exceeded time limitations and legal deadlines for this action.

Judge Vince Chhabria ruled on June 7, 2016 that 'for the purposes of this motion, the only question is whether the arbitration agreement at issue is subject to the FAA [Federal Arbitration Act]. Because that agreement was part of a seaman's employment contract, it is not. Accordingly, the motion to dismiss for failure to bring the action within the FAA's limitations period is denied.'

Chhabria also held that the FAA's had a clause that the FAA did not apply to the contracts of employment of seamen such as that of Mitchell who was a boat captain.

The case continues.