Arbitration

Subscribe to Arbitration via RSS

You may have pondered over the question whether a Judge or an Arbitrator decides if a particular dispute is subject to an agreement to arbitrate.

If you have wondered who makes that sort of decision, it’s actually not an open question.  The U.S. Supreme Court held twenty years ago that:

[u]nless the parties clearly and unmistakably provide otherwise, the question of whether the parties agreed to arbitrate is to be decided by the court, not the arbitrator.

AT&T Techs. v. Commun. Workers of America, 476 U.S. 643, 649 (1986)(emphasis…

Continue Reading NC Business Court On Arbitrability: Clear And Unmistakable

If you were thinking that an arbitration agreement needs to be signed in order to get an order compelling arbitration, your world may have been turned on its ear by the Order from the Business Court last week in Morton v. Ivey, McClellan, Gatton & Talcott, LLP, 2013 NCBC 23..

 There’s certainly a fair amount of North Carolina authority that an arbitration agreement can’t be enforced if it was never signed (noted in 20 of the Order), but Judge Gale held that the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act relaxes…

Continue Reading Arbitration Compelled Based On Unsigned Arbitration Agreement

For anyone who has agonized over a decision between moving to dismiss or moving to compel arbitration, your strategic torment may be over.  A short but important order from the Business Court yesterday ruled that the two options are not mutually exclusive.

In Triad Group, Inc. v. Wachovia Bank, N.A., a bond swap lawsuit filed in April 2009, Wachovia moved to dismiss the claims of the various nursing center plaintiffs.  This April, Judge Tennille dismissed the punitive damages and Chapter 75 claims, but denied the motion as to all remaining…

Continue Reading Arbitration? Motion to Dismiss? Let’s Do Both!

The City of Richmond was kind to the City of Greensboro last week.  After nearly a decade of litigation and arbitration, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s rejection of a challenge to a nearly $15 million arbitration award against the general contractor of a wastewater treatment facility.

The published opinion in MCI Constructors, LLC v. City of Greensboro is the latest round in a dispute arising from a 1996 contract.  That contract delegated to the city manager the role of referee and arbitrator for disputes.  The City terminated MCI for cause, and MCI sought…

Continue Reading Fourth Circuit Affirms $14.9MM Arbitration Award to City of Greensboro

Both the North Carolina Uniform Arbitration Act and the Federal Arbitration Act are stacked in favor of the enforcement of arbitration provisions.  That does not mean that a defendant’s motion to compel arbitration is a foregone conclusion, as a Business Court decision from Tuesday reminded us.

In Capps v. Blondeau, the Plaintiff inherited a significant estate from her aunt and used the estate to establish two trusts.  At some point over the next several years, she began to suffer from dementia, and her broker allegedly took advantage of the situation. …

Continue Reading Arbitration Clause Unenforceable Based on Authenticity and Credibility Concerns

There weren’t any earthshaking decisions yesterday from the North Carolina Court of Appeals, but there are a couple of cases worth a quick mention, one on arbitration and one on discoverability in a medical malpractice case of a letter to a "medical review committee."  There was also a copyright case yesterday from the Fourth Circuit resolving an issue of first impression involving computer software.

Arbitration

In Griessel v. Temas Eye Center, P.C., the Court held that it was not error for the trial court to deny a motion to…

Continue Reading North Carolina Court Of Appeals Rulings, Plus One

A Plaintiff who obtained an Arbitration Award against two members of an LLC lost the right to recover under the Award from the LLC when it settled up with the two LLC members.  The case, decided today by the Business Court, is Essa Commercial Real Estate, Inc. v. Five Trees, LLC.

The facts are complicated, but they boil down to this: Plaintiff got an arbitration award of $325,000 against two members of an LLC (Five Trees).  Plaintiff then sued the LLC and its other members to collect on the…

Continue Reading Plaintiff’s Claims Barred By One Satisfaction Rule

There weren’t any opinions from the Court of Appeals last week which would have been considered for the legal equivalent of an Oscar, but three cases are worth an honorable mention.  They involve arbitration, the statutory requirements for contracting with a municipality, and a healthcare law case involving Certificates of Need.

Arbitration

The arbitration case is WHD v. Mayflower Capital, LLC, in which the Court made a rare reference to the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association. The Defendant argued that the arbitrator had erred by failing…

Continue Reading Decisions Last Week From The North Carolina Court Of Appeals

This case enforced an arbitration provision, even though the Plaintiff had never signed the agreements which contained the arbitration provision. 

A Motion to Compel Arbitration was granted, because the Plaintiff had done the work described in the agreements and was seeking payment pursuant to those agreements, it had submitted applications for payment pursuant to the terms of the agreements and accepted some payment, and it had signed an addendum to one of the agreements which referenced the agreement containing the arbitration provision.

Among other things, the Court noted that "much…

Continue Reading American Drywall Construction, Inc. v. Superior Construction Corp., November 19, 2008 (Jolly)(unpublished)

The Plaintiff had never signed the agreements containing the arbitration provisions which the Defendant sought to enforce, but the Business Court on November 19 nevertheless granted a Motion to Compel Arbitration in American Drywall Construction, Inc. v. Superior Construction Corp.,

The Plaintiff was a subcontractor, the Defendant was the general contractor.  The Defendant prepared three written subcontracts — each of which contained an arbitration provision — but Plaintiff never signed any of them.

Judge Jolly noted three key facts regarding the unsigned agreements:

First, Plaintiff had undertaken to do

…
Continue Reading Arbitration Provision Enforced Even Though It Was Never Signed By Plaintiff