Nursing home arbitration agreements are among the most unpopular arbitration agreements around. Last week, Kentucky’s Supreme Court issued a lengthy, but fractured, opinion, finding three arbitration agreements were never validly formed because the signing parties did not have authority to give up the decedent’s constitutional right to a jury trial. Extendicare Homes, Inc. v. Whisman
In the Hall Street decision in 2008, SCOTUS held that parties could not contractually enlarge Section 10 of the Federal Arbitration Act by agreeing that a court could vacate the arbitration award for reasons not found in that section. This week, the Ninth Circuit held that parties also cannot contractually restrict Section 10 by providing
Did you know that you can form an arbitration agreement without ever using the word “arbitration”? That’s what the Second Circuit held this week in Bakoss v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyds of London, __ F.3d __, 2013 238708 (2d Cir. Jan. 23, 2013).
Bakoss analyzed the clause in a disability insurance certificate providing what happens
This is unheard of! There were two circuit court decisions finding no binding agreement to arbitrate in a single week. (The first is here.) In this new decision from the Third Circuit, an employer’s submission of forms to a union fund along with fringe benefits is held insufficient to compel that employer to arbitration