Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund v. U.S. Foods, Inc.

Ct. of Appeals lacked jurisdiction to consider defendant’s appeal of Dist. Ct.’s order denying defendant’s request to have arbitrator include year 2008 in pending arbitration proceeding to determine withdrawal liability owed by defendant to plaintiff-pension fund for year 2009. While section 16(a)(1)(B) of Federal Arbitration Act allows interlocutory appeals from orders denying requests for arbitration under section 4 of FAA, defendant could not rely on FAA to establish jurisdiction of Ct. of Appeals to review said denial since section 4 of FAA pertains only to requests to arbitrate contained in written agreements, and instant request for arbitration under Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act did not concern any written agreement to arbitrate by instant parties. Moreover, because arbitration with respect to year 2009 is still pending, issue as to whether year 2008 should be included in said arbitration must first be decided by arbitrator. As such defendant must wait until pending arbitration has been completed in order to seek review of arbitrator’s decision with respect to inclusion of year 2008.