SJH 11 v. Dowbuilt

── SJH 11 v. Dowbuilt ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Date: May 29, 2026 Category: General Appellate Case: 25-8037 Document: 32-1 Date Filed: 05/29/2026 Page: 1 FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT _________________________________ May 29, 2026 Christopher M. Wolpert SJH 11 LLC, a Delaware limited liability Clerk of Court company, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. No. 25-8037 (D.C. No. 1:25-CV-00018-SWS) DOWBUILT, INC., a Washington (D. Wyo.) corporation and John Does 1-10, Defendants - Appellants. _________________________________ ORDER AND JUDGMENT * _________________________________ Before MORITZ and FEDERICO, Circuit Judges, and ALLEN, District Judge **. _________________________________ During an arbitration between plaintiff SJH 11 LLC and nonparty SDI LLC— which is ostensibly owned by defendant Dowbuilt, Inc.—the arbitrator ruled that SJH was not required to arbitrate certain of its claims against Dowbuilt and instead could file those claims in a court of competent jurisdiction. After SJH filed this action, Dowbuilt moved to compel arbitration. The district court denied the motion and Dowbuilt appeals. * This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. But it may be cited for its persuasive value. See Fed. R. App. P. 32.1(a); 10th Cir. R. 32.1(A). ** The Honorable Ann Marie McIff Allen, United States District Judge for the District of Utah, sitting by designation.  Appellate Case: 25-8037 Document: 32-1 Date Filed: 05/29/2026 Page: 2 We affirm. Contrary to Dowbuilt’s strained interpretation of the arbitrator’s order, the arbitrator did in fact determine that SJH is not required to arbitrate the claims at issue. Since the parties do not dispute that questions of arbitrability were delegated to the arbitrator, we are bound by that arbitrability ruling. Background In 2021, SJH and SDI entered into two identical contracts related to the development of two properties in Jackson, Wyoming. Although the contracts were solely between SJH and SDI, SDI included a statement in each that it was doing business as Dowbuilt. The contracts required all disputes to be first mediated and then, if unresolved, arbitrated by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) in accordance with its Construction Industry Arbitration Rules. SJH terminated the contracts in September 2022. 1 It refused to pay SDI’s final invoices, and SDI filed for arbitration in November 2023. Referring to itself in its filings as either doing business as Dowbuilt or simply as Dowbuilt, SDI asserted claims for breach of contract and unjust enrichment. In February 2024, SJH answered and filed counterclaims against SDI for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and conversion. On December 6, 2024, SJH filed a motion under Construction Industry Arbitration Rule 9(a), which provides that “[t]he arbitrator shall have the power to 1 SJH’s complaint alleges that it did so because of what it viewed as SDI’s suspicious billing practices. But its actual termination was for convenience based on a contract provision permitting SJH to “at any time, terminate the [c]ontract fo