The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Coinbase Global ( NASDAQ: COIN ), ordering that litigation must be put on hold if a defendant starts an appeal that would direct the case to arbitration. "The sole question before this Court is whether a district court must stay proceedings while the interlocutory appeal on arbitrability is ongoing. The answer is yes," wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the majority opinion. He pointed to Griggs v. Provident Consumer Discount Co ., saying an appeal, including an interlocutory appeal, “divests the district court of its control over those aspects of the case involved in the appeal.” Other businesses supported Coinbase's ( COIN ) view that allowing litigation to proceed would result in unnecessary costs. If the district court moves ahead with pretrial and trial proceedings while the appeal over the use of arbitration is ongoing, "then many of the asserted benefits of arbitration (efficiency, less expense, less intrusive discovery, and the like) would be irretrievably lost — even if the court of appeals later concluded that the case actually had belonged in arbitration all along," Kavanaugh wrote . The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Katanji Brown Jackson, said the majority's opinion that the "mandatory-general-stay rule for interlocutory arbitrability appeals comes out of nowhere. No statute imposes it." Her view contends that a trial judge has the authority to decide which parts of a case should continue and which ones should be paused pending appeal. The case arose from a lawsuit against Coinbase ( COIN ), where a customer alleged that the company failed to replace funds fraudulently taken from users accounts. In response, the company filed a motion to put the matter to arbitration, as its user agreement provides for resolving disputes through binding arbitration. In Friday morning trading, Coinbase ( COIN ) stock edged down 0.1% . Earlier this month, Coinbase ( COIN ) said it was willing to take its battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to the Supreme Court. Dear readers: We recognize that politics often intersects with the financial news of the day, so we invite you to click here to join the separate political discussion. Other Supreme Court news: Supreme Court turns down appeal from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac shareholders Supreme Court rejects challenge to California fracking ban Supreme Court rules against Amgen in Repatha dispute with Sanofi/Regeneron Supreme Court maintains legal shield for online speech in Google, Twitter Supreme Court allows state, local climate lawsuits against oil companies
