Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Contract-formation and Arbitrability under Delaware law [in Texas Court]


The Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA") preempts state law that would otherwise render arbitration agreements unenforceable in a contract involving interstate commerce. 9 U.S.C. § 2 (West 2008); Southland Corp. v. Keating, 465 U.S. 1, 10-11, 104 S Ct. 852, 858, 79 L. Ed. 2d 1 (1984); In re Olshan Found. Repair Co., LLC, 328 S.W.3d 883, 888 (Tex. 2010).
  
The parties in this case do not dispute that the two Delaware LLC agreements involve interstate commerce.[9] Under the FAA, courts should apply ordinary state-law principles governing the formation of contracts when determining issues of substantive arbitrability. First Options of Chicago, Inc. v. Kaplan, 514 U.S. 938, 944, 115 S. Ct. 1920, 1924, 131 L. Ed. 2d 985 (1995). As noted, the two Delaware LLC agreements provide that they should be "construed and enforced in accordance with and governed by the laws of the State of Delaware." The arbitration clauses contained in those agreements specify that any actual arbitration is to be conducted in accordance with the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association ("the AAA Rules"), but the arbitration agreements themselves are expressly governed by Delaware law.
  
The Delaware Supreme Court has confirmed that "arbitration is a matter of contract and a party cannot be required to submit to arbitration any dispute which he has not agreed so to submit." James & Jackson, LLC v. Willie Gary, LLC, 906 A.2d 76, 78 (Del. 2006). A Delaware LLC is bound by the arbitration provisions of its own governance and operation agreement, even where the LLC did not itself execute the agreement. Elf Atochem N. Am., Inc. v. Jaffari, 727 A.2d 286, 287 (Del. 1999). Delaware arbitration law mirrors federal policy in presuming the validity of arbitration agreements and resolving doubts about the scope of arbitrable issues in favor of arbitration. See Moses H. Cone Mem'l Hosp. v. Mercury Const. Corp., 460 U.S. 1, 24-25, 103 S. Ct. 927, 941, 74 L. Ed. 2d 765 (1983) (explaining federal law and policy); Willie Gary 906 A.2d at 78 (explaining Delaware law).
  
The question of whether parties have agreed to arbitrate their disputes is to be decided by the court, unless there is clear and unmistakable evidence that the parties delegated that question to the arbitrator instead. First Options, 514 U.S. at 944-45, 115 S. Ct. at 1924. Federal law refers gateway matters such as (1) whether the parties are bound by a given arbitration clause and (2) whether a certain dispute is within the arbitration agreement to the court in order to "avoid the risk of forcing parties to arbitrate a matter they may well not have agreed to arbitrate." Howsam v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., 537 U.S. 79, 83-84, 123 S. Ct. 588, 591-92, 154 L. Ed. 2d 491 (2002).
 
The Delaware Supreme Court has adopted the majority federal view that a reference to the AAA Rules in an arbitration agreement serves as the type of clear and unmistakable evidence that the parties agreed to submit the question of the arbitrability of a particular dispute to the arbitrator. Willie Gary, 906 A.2d at 80. However, the court limited this interpretation to arbitration clauses that broadly refer all disputes to arbitration under the referenced rules. Id. Where an arbitration agreement specifically reserves carve-outs for judicial remedies, something more than reference to the AAA Rules is needed to establish that the parties intended to arbitrate the arbitrability of their dispute. Id. at 81.
  
Whether the court or the arbitrator decides the question of substantive arbitrability, Delaware law strongly favors arbitration. See Elf, 727 A.2d at 295. An arbitration clause, though, only covers claims that touch on the legal rights contained in the underlying contract or agreement within which the clause is found. See Parfi Holding AB v. Mirror Image Internet, Inc., 817 A.2d 149, 159-60 (Del. 2002) (holding that a fiduciary duty claim was not covered by an arbitration provision in a stock underwriting agreement). Where an arbitration clause is broad in scope, courts will defer to it where a claim touches on any issues of contract rights or contract performance. Id. at 155.

 
STANDARD OF REVIEW

 
We review a trial court's grant of a motion to stay arbitration under an abuse-of-discretion standard. See McReynolds v. Elston, 222 S.W.3d 731, 739 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2007, no pet.) (so holding on appeal of order denying motion to compel arbitration under TAA); see also Garcia v. Huerta, 340 S.W.3d 864, 868-69 (Tex. App.-San Antonio 2011, pet. filed) (so holding on appeal of order denying motion to compel arbitration under FAA); Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, LLP v. J.A. Green, 327 S.W.3d 859, 863 (Tex. App.-Dallas 2010, no pet.) (same); SEB, Inc. v. Campbell, No. 03-10-00375-CV, 2011 WL 749292, at *2 (Tex. App.-Austin Mar, 2, 2011, no pet.) (mem. op.) (same). Under this standard, we defer to the trial court's factual determinations if they are supported by evidence, but we review the trial court's legal determinations de novo. In re Labatt Food Service, L.P., 279 S.W.3d 640, 643 (Tex. 2009). Determining whether a claim falls within the scope of an arbitration agreement involves the trial court's legal interpretation of the agreement, and we review such interpretations de novo. McReynolds, 222 S.W.3d at 740.

SOURCE: HOUSTON COURT OF APPEALS -  14-11-00439-CV – 4/17/2012  

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