Employer’s Failure to Sign Arbitration Agreement Made it Unenforceable Against Employee
Notwithstanding the strong federal and state policies in favor of arbitrating business disputes, employers that manage litigation risk via mandatory arbitration agreements may wish to consider whether the agreements require execution on the company’s part.
After all, employers should expect that any important contract or agreement is going to be closely scrutinized in a court of law if a dispute arrises..
Recently, in Huckaba v. Ref-Chem L.P., the Fifth Circuit held that an arbitration agreement signed by an employee was not enforceable because it was not signed by a representative of the employer. Having gone to the trouble of drafting the arbitration agreement and obtaining the employee’s signature on it, the employer placed the document in the employee’s personnel file and moved on to other business.
The Fifth Circuit said that language in the agreement explicitly required the signature of both parties. For example, the agreement provided that “[by] signing this agreement the parties are giving up any right they may have to sue each other.” Elsewhere the agreement provided that modifications must be “in writing and signed by all parties.” There was also a blank signature line for the employer, though the court said that this was not dispositive.
In view of this language, the court said, the absence of the employer’s signature is fatal to enforcement of the arbitration agreement.
The court rejected the employer’s argument that the employee’s continued employment after signing the arbitration agreement constituted acceptance of the agreement. The contested issue in this case, the court said, is whether the arbitration agreement was properly executed — not whether the employee accepted its terms.
The court also turned back the employer’s reliance on In re Halliburton Co., 80 S.W.3d 566 (Tex. 2002), a case in which the Texas Supreme Court enforced an arbitration agreement that was not signed by either the employee or the employer. In Halliburton, the court noted, the agreement stated that submission to arbitration was a term of employment. In this case, on the other hand, the arbitration agreement merely provided that continued employment was consideration for the agreement.
Along the way, the Fifth Circuit observed that the trial court had erred when it concluded that the federal presumption in favor of arbitration, contained in the Federal Arbitration Act, meant that the party challenging an arbitration agreement has the burden to overcome its presumptive validity.
The Huckaba v. Ref-Chem case was decided a few weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, No. 16-285 (U.S., decided May 21, 2018). In Epic Systems, the high court emphasized that federal courts may refuse enforcement of arbitration agreements only on “generally applicable contract defenses” under state law.
The message employers should take from the Huckaba and Epic Systems cases is that federal courts will enforce arbitration agreements, but they will not judicially repair contracts that fail under state contract law. The arbitration agreement in Huckaba might have survived if it had been drafted differently (e.g., omitting language explicitly mentioning the need for the employer’s signature, and tightening up the language regarding the effect of continued employment). However, employers should ensure, for all contracts affecting company operations, that airtight processes are put in place to guarantee that every necessary signature is obtained.
The case is Huckaba v. Ref-Chem L.P., No. 17-50341 (5th Cir., decided June 11, 2018)