Lots of interesting arbitration law has been made already in 2016, so here is a roundup from the first four weeks of the year. As a teaser, courts have breathed life into the effective vindication doctrine, found arbitrators cannot determine the availability of class actions, and found state laws not preempted.  More surprisingly, state courts are following SCOTUS’s interpretations of the FAA.

Effective Vindication Lives On

Although I thought Italian Colors was an “effective elimination” of the effective vindication doctrine, the Tenth Circuit affirmed its use as a defense to a motion to compel arbitration this month in Nesbitt v. FCNH, Inc., 2016 WL 53816 (10th Cir. Jan. 5, 2016).  [Side note to WestLaw: can there really have been 53,816 cases by January 5th of the year??  Or do I misunderstand the numbering system?]  In that case, class action plaintiffs in a Fair Labor Standards Act case defeated a motion to compel individual arbitrations by asserting that under the AAA Commercial Rules, each plaintiff would have to pay between $2,300 and $12,500 in arbitrator fees and could not recover attorneys’ fees.  The appellate court affirmed.

Incorporation of AAA Rules Can “Unmistakably” Delegate Some Gateway Issues, But Maybe Not the Availability of Class Actions

The Third Circuit drew what seems to me a questionable distinction between parties’ ability to delegate some substantive issues of arbitrability from others. Despite acknowledging that federal courts of appeals have universally found that when parties agree to be bound by the AAA rules, they delegate substantive arbitrability to arbitrators, the Third Circuit found that does not extend to the availability of class arbitration. Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC v. Scout Petroleum, LLC, 2016 WL 53806 (3d Cir. Jan. 5, 2015).  Recall that in general, courts are presumed to have authority to determine whether an arbitration exists, whether it is valid, and whether it covers the scope of the parties’ dispute.  But, under First Options of Chicago, a SCOTUS opinion, parties can delegate even those issues to arbitrators as long as their intent to do so is “clear and unmistakable.”  In Chesapeake Appalachia, the court repeats its pronouncement from Opalinski that the “availability of classwide arbitration” is one of those substantive questions of arbitrability that courts presumptively decide, unless parties clearly and unmistakably state otherwise.  And then it further protects courts’ ability to make that determination by holding that the parties’ incorporation of AAA rules, which explicitly allow arbitrators to determine their own jurisdiction and contain supplementary rules about class arbitration, is not sufficient to delegate the availability of classwide arbitration to arbitrators.  Drawing on statements from Sutter, the court leaned on the “great” procedural differences between bilateral and class-action arbitration to support its distinction.

Waiver of the Right to Arbitrate is an Issue Presumptively for Courts

Maybe Bryan Garner can come up with a new term for “waiving” the right to arbitrate, so that it is not the same verb as waiving the substantive claim being arbitrated. If so, that would alleviate the problem that the Supreme Court of Nevada addressed in Principal Investments, Inc. v. Harrison, 2016 WL 166011 (Nev. Jan. 14, 2016).  That court wrestled with the issue of whether a court or an arbitrator should decide if a party has waived its right to arbitrate by participating in litigation.  In other words, is that type of waiver a substantive question of arbitrability (like whether there is a valid arbitration agreement) that is presumptively for courts, or a procedural question of arbitrability that is presumptively for arbitrators?  Adding to the confusion is language from Howsam and BG Group characterizing “waiver” as an issue presumptively for arbitrators.  After canvassing other courts and finding the majority have concluded that waiver-by-litigation is presumptively for courts, the Nevada Supreme Court followed the herd.

Missouri Enforces Prima Paint’s Severability Doctrine

As I have picked on Missouri for bucking federal arbitration law, I owe it to the Show-Me State to point out that it recently (but reluctantly) followed federal precedent on severability. In Ellis v. JF Enterprises, LLC, 2016 143281 (Mo. Jan. 12, 2016), the Supreme Court of Missouri recognized that under federal precedent, a plaintiff cannot avoid an arbitration agreement by asserting the contract as a whole is void, it must point to a deficiency with the arbitration clause specifically.  As a result, the court held that “no matter what logic or fairness” undergirded the plaintiff’s argument that her auto sale was invalid, she had to arbitrate that claim.

Kentucky’s Precedent on Wrongful Death Actions is not Preempted by FAA

In Richmond Health Facilities v. Nichols, 2016 WL 192004 (6th Cir. Jan. 15, 2016), the Sixth Circuit analyzed Kentucky’s state law rule, which holds that wrongful-death claims belong only to beneficiaries, and therefore any arbitration agreement signed by a decedent cannot bind a beneficiary bringing a wrongful death claim.  The Sixth Circuit found that state law rule does not stand as an obstacle to the FAA, because it does not categorically prohibit arbitration of wrongful death claims, so was not preempted.

Lots of Action on Attorneys’ Fees

The Supreme Court of Utah held that an arbitrator cannot award attorneys’ fees incurred in confirming the arbitration award, under the Uniform Arbitration Act. Westgate Resorts, Ltd. V. Adel, 2016 WL 67717 (Utah Jan. 5, 2016).

Massachusetts’ highest court also found an arbitrator is not authorized to award attorneys’ fees due to one party’s assertion of frivolous defenses (unless the parties specifically granted the arbitrator that authority). Beacon Towers Condominium Trust v. Alex, 2015 WL 9646024 (Mass. January 7, 2016).

Similarly, the Second Circuit held that a federal district court erred in awarding attorneys’ fees and costs to the party that successfully confirmed its arbitration award. Zurich Am. Ins. Co. v. Team Tankers (2d Cir. Jan. 28, 2016).  As part of its contractual analysis, the court repeated that parties may not contract around Section Ten of the FAA.  In other words, it would not read the parties’ contract as precluding an attempt to vacate the award.

PHEW. I have now alleviated the guilt that has been weighing on me for not blogging about these cases yet.  Hope February brings a more reasonable stream of opinions!