West Liberty Foods, L.L.C. v. Moroni Feed Company

Case Summary: 10-cv-00146

Plaintiff West Liberty Foods filed this diversity action for declaratory judgment in the Southern District of Iowa against Defendant Maroni Feed Company upon allegations by Defendant that it had breached a contractual agreement between the two companies.

In 2006, Plaintiff and Defendant entered into a marketing agreement whereby Plaintiff became the exclusive marketing agent for Defendant’s products.  Three and a half years later, Defendant terminated the agreement.  After termination, Defendant alleged breach of the agreement by Plaintiff and sought arbitration of the dispute, arguing that the arbitration provisions survived termination of the agreement.  Plaintiff brought this suit in response, asking the court to declare that it did not breach the marketing agreement.  Defendant answered by filing a Motion to Compel Arbitration.

On October 20, 2010, the court granted Defendant’s motion, referring the case to arbitration, but denied Defendant’s request for attorney’s fees and costs.  An arbitration panel heard the dispute and issued a final award to Defendant in the net amount of $4.7 million.  Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff filed a motion requesting that the court vacate the arbitration award of pre-judgment interest, and Defendant simultaneously filed a motion asking the court to confirm the arbitration award.  Plaintiff also filed a notice of fraud, alleging misrepresentation by Defendant that affected the court’s decision to order arbitration.  This video shows the hearing on these motions.

Case Highlights

• Complaint filed 4/01/2010 (Doc #1)
• Defendant filed Motion to Compel Arbitration and Stay Litigation 5/25/2010 (Doc #7)
• Order granting in part and denying in part the Motion to Compel 10/20/2010 (Doc #19)
• Plaintiff filed Motion to Vacate in Part and Confirm in Part the Arbitration Award 8/27/2013 (Doc #30)
• Defendant filed Motion to Confirm the Arbitration Award 8/27/2013 (Doc #31)
• Hearing held on the arbitration motions 1/15/2014 (Doc #46)

Case-related documents, including those referenced above, are available via the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) service. For more information, visit Pacer.gov.