NY Court Clears Navios Arbitration, Warning Parties Not to Fight From Both Sides
# New York Court Clears Way for Navios Arbitration
A New York appeals court overturned a temporary order that had paused arbitration involving Peers Business Inc. and Navios South American Logistics Inc. The court found that Peers’ participation in the arbitration weakened its bid to stop the proceeding.
The dispute centers on a fight involving a South American infrastructure and logistics company and the enforcement of a foreign arbitral award. Peers went to court seeking to halt the arbitration, but the Appellate Division, First Department, ruled that the stay should be lifted after Peers took part in the process it was trying to suspend.
The key legal question was whether a party could actively participate in arbitration and then obtain emergency court relief to shut it down. The appeals court’s answer was effectively no: Peers’ conduct showed it had engaged with the arbitration rather than treating it as an unauthorized proceeding from the start.
That matters well beyond this corporate fight. For logistics companies, carriers and other businesses using arbitration to resolve cross-border disputes, the ruling is a warning that courtroom challenges can collide with actions taken at the arbitration table. Participating in hearings, submitting arguments or otherwise engaging in the process may make it harder to later claim that arbitration should have been stopped altogether.
**Bottom Line:** Companies cannot easily participate in arbitration and then ask a court to freeze it—would your business strategy account for that risk?
