Karl Bayer's Disputing Blog » Court Decisions about Arbitration

Arbitration May Have the Last Word in Contentious Illegal Immigration Case

By Karl Bayer - October 7, 2008

Immigration is a hot topic in today’s global economy as travel becomes cheaper and labor markets become more fluid. However, the rules of immigration can be tricky and, in some cases, contradictory. For instance, in the U.S., the Ninth and Second Circuit Courts of Appeals gave two different rulings on the same issue. In the case of Orozco vs. Mukasey, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that, “a person who obtains entry into the United State

Supreme Court Reverts to Previous Stance on Waiver

By Rob Hargrove - May 21, 2008

Well, it took a couple weeks, but the Texas Supreme Court has reverted to its pre-Perry Homes stance on the circumstances in which a party may or may not waive its right to compel arbitration. On Friday, while we were otherwise indisposed and unable to blog, the Texas Supreme Court found that a party’s decision to remove a case to federal court (and then agree to a remand back to state court) did not “substantially invoke the judicial

While We Were Out: Texas Supreme Court Decides Perry Homes, et al. v. Cull

By Rob Hargrove - May 5, 2008

I picked the wrong week to go on vacation. While I was on an airplane coming back from France, the Texas Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in the Perry Homes Case. The Texas legal blogosphere has already been all over it, and the Supreme Court of Texas Blog has posted a nice recap of the commentary. At the risk of coming to the party late, we’ll still offer some comments on Friday’s opinion. Robert and Jane Cull bought a h

Nineteen Texas Supreme Court Opinions Today

By Rob Hargrove - March 28, 2008

Today, the Texas Supreme Court handed down nineteen (19) opinions. None of them, however, has anything to do with arbitration. One of them, though, resolved an issue which has divided the courts of appeals and with which we had to grapple not too long ago. Since we have not been blogging much lately (we’ve been working a lot), we thought we’d mention it. As of today, Rule 202 no longer allows the pre-lawsuit deposition of a physician

No Longer can you Craft Your Own Arbitral Standard of Review

By Rob Hargrove - March 26, 2008

Almost three years ago, we started monitoring the rapidly developing law of arbitration by way of a CLE paper Karl presented to a State Bar seminar in Dallas. That paper was called Standards of Review as Applied to Arbitral Decisions, and at its conclusion we advised seminar attendees and other readers that even though arbitral awards were for most intents and purposes not appealable, nothing prevented parties, in the Fifth Circuit anyway, from c

U.S. Supreme Court Issues Arbitrability Opinion

By Rob Hargrove - February 20, 2008

Today was a busy day at the U.S. Supreme Court; five opinions were handed down. Others have commented about them all. One of the opinions, however, discusses Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) preemption of state administrative proceedings and as such is something we need to mention. The case, Preston vs. Ferrer (link is to .pdf file), involves a dispute between noted television jurist Judge Alex and an attorney who may or may not have b

Fifth Circuit Rejects Amway’s Arbitration Policy

By Rob Hargrove - February 13, 2008

About a week ago, the Fifth Circuit handed down an opinion in an Amway distributorship dispute (link is to .pdf file) which rejects, after a decade of arbitration and arbitrability litigation, a claim by Amway that certain disputes had to be arbitrated. As followers of this area are aware, a Fifth Circuit opinion rejecting arbitrability is noteworthy in and of itself. Amway, of course, is a company that sells products through distributors who in

Order Compelling Arbitration is Reviewable on Final Appeal

By Rob Hargrove - December 14, 2007

In the context of a slightly complicated procedural situation, the Texas Supreme Court made the following ruling earlier today: in a case where a court compels arbitration, the party resisting arbitration files a petition for mandamus challenging arbitration, the petition is denied, the party loses the arbitration, and the party resists confirmation of the award without success, in that case, the party is still able to challenge arbitrability in

Supreme Court Compels Shower Pan Arbitration

By Rob Hargrove - October 12, 2007

The Texas Supreme Court issued a per curiam mandamus opinion compelling an arbitration this morning in a class action suit which alleges that a home builder built a bunch of houses without shower pans. The opinion is not long, but it quickly dispenses with a number of the common contractual arguments parties raise when seeking to avoid arbitration. In other words, it is a handy primer for this type of arbitrability challenge, offering a sort of c

Big Day for McCarran-Ferguson Reverse Preemption in Texas

By Rob Hargrove - September 21, 2007

We’ve blogged before, on numerous occasions, about McCarran-Ferguson Reverse Preemption of the Federal Arbitration Act. Specifically, we’ve blogged about the Kepka case out of Houston, whereby the Court held that Texas medical malpractice legislation, which holds that an agreement to arbitrate a med-mal case must be signed by both the plaintiff and the plaintiff’s attorney, was legislation to regulate the insurance industry, and