Cordova v. World Finance Corp. of NM

2009 NMSC 021, 208 P.3d 901, 146 N.M. 256
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedApril 29, 2009
Docket30,536
StatusPublished
Cited by152 cases

This text of 2009 NMSC 021 (Cordova v. World Finance Corp. of NM) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cordova v. World Finance Corp. of NM, 2009 NMSC 021, 208 P.3d 901, 146 N.M. 256 (N.M. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

DANIELS, Justice.

{1} This case requires us to review the validity of a small loan company’s form arbitration provision that would limit a borrower to mandatory arbitration as a forum to settle all disputes whatsoever, while reserving for the lender the exclusive option of access to the courts for all remedies the lender is most likely to pursue against a borrower. We hold that such an inherently one-sided agreement is against New Mexico public policy and is therefore void as unconscionable. Although we differ somewhat in our legal analysis, we affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals and hold that the district court was correct in denying the loan company’s motion to compel arbitration of the borrower’s judicial claims.

I. BACKGROUND

{2} Defendant World Finance Corporation of New Mexico (World Finance) specializes in small loans at over 100% annual interest rates. Over the course of several years, Plaintiff Laura Cordova (Cordova) signed ten separate loan agreements with World Finance that grew out of just two original loans. The loans were repeatedly rolled over into new loans, and Cordova never succeeded in paying off any of them before signing each new agreement.

{3} All ten of World Finance’s loan agreements included the company’s separately-signed form arbitration attachment. The first paragraph of the printed arbitration provision broadly stated that the parties must arbitrate all disputes arising under, but not limited to:

• the Loan Agreement and any previous or subsequent loan from Lender and any previous or subsequent retail installment sales contract made with/or assigned to Lender including all documents relating to same and insurance purchased in connection with the transaction;
• whether the claim or dispute must be arbitrated and the validity of this Agreement;
• any claim based upon fraud or misrepresentation;
• any claim based upon a federal or state statute including, but not limited to, the Truth-in-lending Act and Regulation Z; the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B, state insurance laws, state usury and lending laws including state consumer protection statutes and regulations;
• any dispute about closing, servicing, collecting or enforcing the Loan Agreement or other loan or retail installment sales agreements between Lender and Borrower

{4} However, a separate paragraph in the form also provided that the lender alone had the exclusive and unlimited alternative to seek any judicial remedies it might otherwise have available to it in law or in equity in the event of a default by the borrower:

Notwithstanding this Agreement, in the event of a Default under the Loan Agreement, Lender may seek its remedies in an action at law or in equity, including but not limited to, judicial foreclosure or repossession. Lender may also exercise its other remedies provided by law (such as, but not limited to, the right of self-help repossession under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code or other applicable law and/or the foreclosure power of sale). This section shall not constitute a waiver of Lender’s rights thereafter to seek specific enforcement of its rights under this Agreement in the event Borrower shall assert a counterclaim or right of setoff in such judicial or non-judicial action.

{5} Cordova ultimately sought the assistance of an attorney, who filed on her behalf in the district court for San Miguel County a complaint for injunctive relief and damages, alleging that World Finance had engaged in unfair, deceptive, and unconscionable trade practices within the meaning of the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act. See NMSA 1978, §§ 57-12-1 to -24 (1967, as amended through 2003).

{6} The complaint alleged that World Finance had engaged in unreasonable and tortious debt collection practices, including personal visits and almost daily phone calls that caused Cordova to lose her job, despite her repeated pleas for World Finance to cease contacting her employers and to cease contacting her at work. Agents of World Finance allegedly also called her at home nearly every day during her six-week recuperation from lung surgery. She claimed damages resulting from lost wages, lost employment benefits, lost time, invasion of privacy, and emotional distress.

{7} In response to the complaint, World Finance filed a motion to compel arbitration, arguing that Cordova was bound by the mandatory arbitration clauses that had been a standard part of all ten of the form loan agreements. The motion argued that the arbitration provisions were enforceable against Cordova pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C. §§ 1-16 (2006), and the New Mexico Uniform Arbitration Act, NMSA 1978, §§ 44-7A-1 to -32 (2001), and that Cordova was precluded from seeking judicial relief for any resolution of her claims.

{8} Cordova countered with a legal memorandum in opposition, arguing that World Finance’s arbitration clause was “so one-sided that it cannot be enforced” by providing that “any claims brought against [World Finance] by a consumer must be submitted to arbitration, but that any claims that it would conceivably want to bring ... may proceed in court.”

{9} After a hearing, the district court denied World Finance’s motion to compel arbitration, and World Finance appealed.

{10} The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court, holding that the conflicting and one-sided arbitration provisions rendered the entire arbitration agreement illusory and unenforceable. Cordova v. World Fin. Corp. of N.M., No. 27,436, slip op. at 3 (N.M. Ct.App. June 20, 2007). This Court granted World Finance’s petition for writ of certiorari to review that decision.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

{11} All issues before us are subject to a de novo standard of review. We apply a de novo standard of review to a district court’s denial of a motion to compel arbitration. See Piano v. Premier Distrib. Co., 2005-NMCA-018, ¶ 4, 137 N.M. 57, 107 P.3d 11. “Similarly, whether the parties have agreed to arbitrate presents a question of law, and we review the applicability and construction of a contractual provision requiring arbitration de novo.” Id. By both statute and case law, we review whether a contract is unconscionable as a matter of law. See NMSA 1978, § 55-2-302 (1961) (providing that courts, as a matter of law, may police against contracts or clauses found unconscionable); Fiser v. Dell Computer Carp., 2008-NMSC-046, ¶19, 144 N.M. 464, 188 P.3d 1215 (providing the issue of the uneonscionability of á contract “is a matter of law and is reviewed de novo”).

III. DISCUSSION

A. The Theories Underlying the Opinions Below

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2009 NMSC 021, 208 P.3d 901, 146 N.M. 256, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cordova-v-world-finance-corp-of-nm-nm-2009.