Now that we’ve run through those reminders on issues that arise frequently in arbitration law, let’s talk about some unsettled issues.  SCOTUS today is considering two cases involving delegation clauses and how lower courts should put its Rent-a-Center, West decision into practice:

• New Prime, Inc. v. Oliveira — this case comes from the First Circuit and raises the question whether the court should determine that the FAA applies before enforcing a delegation clause.  Why does that matter?   In this case a worker successfully argued the FAA did not govern, because he was an exempt transportation worker, and therefore the court refused to compel arbitration.  [Jan. 22 update: SCOTUS’s order list today does not include this as a grant or deny, so it will likely be considered again in February.]
• Applied Underwriters Captive Risk Assurance Co. v. Minnieland Private Day School — this case comes from the Fourth Circuit and raises this question: Can a defense to arbitration that applies to the arbitration agreement as a whole ever be specific to the delegation clause?   [Disclosure: I was involved with this petition.] [ Jan. 22 update: SCOTUS denied cert.]

SCOTUS is also being asked to review a decision of the California Court of Appeal that refused to compel arbitration based on a state statute.  That California statute gives courts the discretion to deny enforcement of an arbitration provision when there is a possibility of conflicting rulings in pending litigation with third parties.  The cert petition asks whether the FAA preempts that California statute and will be considered in February.

Last month, SCOTUS  denied cert in another California arbitration case.  That petition, Betancourt v. Prudential Overall Supply, challenged California’s rule that private attorney general disputes cannot be arbitrated.  (SCOTUS passed on the same issue in 2015.)

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