Federal Arbitration Act

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On October 1, new Commercial Arbitration Rules became effective at the American Arbitration Association (AAA).  These rules are likely to apply to all commercial arbitrations filed on and after October 1 (unless an arbitration agreement specifically provides for old rules).  The AAA posted its own summary of the changes.  Four of the most notable…

Put this post in the “I called it” category.

On June 12, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared in Feeney that class arbitration waivers are invalid under Massachusetts law if plaintiffs cannot effectively pursue their claims in individual arbitration.  On June 20, the U.S. Supreme Court decided American Express, holding that arbitration agreements must…

The recent Sutter decision drives home repeatedly that a court may not vacate an arbitrator’s decision under the FAA just because a judge thinks the arbitrator reached the wrong result.  Justice Kagan said that under Section 10(a)(4) the court cannot second-guess the award, not even in the face of “grave error.”  Instead, the award must…

As we were waiting for SCOTUS’s decision in AmEx, we got a decision on vindicating statutory rights from a different high court: the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.  In an opinion that could be a blueprint for other plaintiff-friendly states, the supremes in Massachusetts held that courts may invalidate arbitration agreements that preclude class …

The U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Sutter today, unanimously holding that as long as the arbitrator bases a decision to allow or disallow class arbitration on the text of the parties’ agreement, her “construction holds, however good, bad, or ugly.”  Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter, 569 U.S. ___ (June 10, 2013).  The …

In a dispute over whether an arbitrator has authority to grant a video game developer and publisher a perpetual license in the intellectual property as a remedy for the developer’s fraud and breaches of contract, the Fifth Circuit found that the arbitrator’s creative award must be upheld under the Federal Arbitration Act, and set forth…

The Third Circuit refused to vacate an arbitrator’s award, despite allegations that she failed to disclose contributions the defendant’s parent company had made to her judicial campaign and failed to disclose that she co-taught a seminar with in-house counsel for the defendant’s parent company.  Freeman v. Pittsburgh Glass Works, LLC, __ F.3d __, 2013 WL…

Two federal circuit courts recently reversed district court decisions allowing non-signatories to compel arbitration.  The analysis emphasizes that for a defendant to prove equitable estoppel compels arbitration, the plaintiff’s legal claims must be closely related to the contract containing the arbitration clause.

Retail grocers asserted antitrust claims against wholesalers in In re Wholesale Grocery Products …