Arbitration

The Maryland Court of Special Appeal has recently issued decisions in two separate matters, reaching similar conclusions on very different sets of facts. The outcomes were (1) a related non-party could not be compelled to arbitrate, nor (2) could a p… Read More

A hauling company submitted bids for removal of three different types of construction debris, and the parties agreed on and signed a contract covering two of those categories. Later, by oral agreement the third category initially bid on was added at… Read More

Okay, so the New Hampshire Supreme Court did not actually say its state arbitration law trumped the federal act. But the NH court did say that its state courts would not be obligated to follow certain terms of the Federal Arbitration Act. Interpretin… Read More

Concluding that a dispute clause left homeowners with no effective remedy, a divided South Carolina Supreme Court has stricken an arbitration clause in a home construction contract. The dissent, citing recent US Supreme Court decisions, argued that t… Read More

Football fans on either side of Deflategate will see the corollaries here. Over a span of years, a drywall company made several attempts to withdraw from the contractors’ association that bargains with particular unions. The company ended up in arb… Read More

From two different courts in two different states on two very different claims come the same concept: an agreement to arbitrate may be binding even without a signed contract. One comes via an unsigned law firm partnership agreement, and the other via… Read More

One party argued throughout an arbitration proceeding that the agreement containing the arbitration clause was illegal and void as against public policy. The other side had obtained an order compelling arbitration, and then prevailed in front of the… Read More

A Florida Court of Appeal has concluded that an arbitration clause incorporating the AAA Construction Industry Arbitration Rules means that the parties intended to submit issues of arbitrability to the arbitrator and not to the courts. The parties ha… Read More