Shedding Some Light: SCOTUS Grants Cert. in Lamps Plus to Answer Question on State-Law Contract Interpretation and Class Arbitration
Andrew C. Glass, Robert W. Sparkes, III, Roger L. Smerage, Elma Delic
In Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp., [1] the U.S. Supreme Court held that “a party may not be compelled” under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) “to submit to class arbitration unless there is a contractual basis for concluding that the party agreed to do so.” [2] The Stolt-Nielsen Court found that an agreement that is silent on the availability of class arbitration does not provide sufficient evidence that the parties intended to submit to class, as opposed to individual, arbitration. [3] The Court, however, left open the question of what level of specificity an agreement must contain to demonstrate the parties’ consent to submit a dispute to class arbitration. [4]