Teledyne, Inc., Teledyne Canada Limited, and Teledyne Cm Products, Inc. v. Kone Corporation, Outokumpu Oy and Rammer Oy, Finnish Corporations

A Canadian corporation brought suit in California state court against a private Finnish corporation and two state-owned Finnish corporations. The entire case was removed to federal district court and later dismissed on a series of jurisdictional grounds. This appeal raises difficult issues regarding the scope of removal jurisdiction under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1330 (a) and 1441(d), the interpretation of the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 2 , and the application of settled principles of personal jurisdiction. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

Teledyne Canada Limited is a Canadian corporation. In 1980, Kone Corporation, a privately-owned Finnish company, granted Teledyne an exclusive distributorship in the United States for hydraulic breakers manufactured by Kone. Kone terminated this agreement on March 6, 1985.

Shortly thereafter, Kone and Teledyne began negotiating a new agreement. On April 10, 1986, representatives from both companies signed a document appointing Teledyne as the exclusive distributor of Kone’s hydraulic breakers in the United States (and several other countries) for a period of three years with a three year option to renew. Although the…