Dreyfuss v. Etelecare Global Solutions-U.S. Inc.

349 F. App'x 551
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedSeptember 21, 2009
DocketNo. 08-5903-cv
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 349 F. App'x 551 (Dreyfuss v. Etelecare Global Solutions-U.S. Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dreyfuss v. Etelecare Global Solutions-U.S. Inc., 349 F. App'x 551 (2d Cir. 2009).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

Plaintiff-appellant eTelecare Global Solutions-US Inc. (“TGS”) appeals from the memorandum and order, dated November 13, 2008, 2008 WL 4974864, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Sullivan, J.), which denied TGS’s motion to compel arbitration. This Court has jurisdiction to hear TGS’s appeal because, pursuant to Section 16 of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), 9 U.S.C. Section 16(a)(1)(B), an immediate appeal may be taken from an order denying a motion to compel arbitration.

According to his complaint, which asserts diversity of citizenship as a basis for federal jurisdiction, James Dreyfuss is a citizen of New York and TGS is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Arizona. For slightly over three years, beginning in March 2004, Dreyfuss worked as a salesman for TGS. TGS salesmen were compensated by commission, but commissions were not paid until the client account obtained by the salesman actually began to generate revenue for TGS, something which generally took upwards of two years. The gravamen of Dreyfuss’s complaint is that, in April 2007, just as certain of the accounts he had obtained for TGS were on the verge of generating revenue, he was terminated and payment of commissions allegedly due to him was refused.

Prior to answering the complaint, TGS filed a motion to compel arbitration based upon an arbitration agreement which Dreyfuss signed as a condition of his employment. A problem immediately became apparent in that the copy of the agreement submitted by TGS to the district court in support of its motion is obviously not a copy of the original agreement. The last page is signed by Dreyfuss, but the text on the preceding page stops in the middle of a sentence which is not completed on the last page. And, although Dreyfuss does not dispute that he signed an arbitration agreement upon being employed by TGS, TGS acknowledges that it could not locate a complete copy of the arbitration agreement which Dreyfuss signed.

What TGS has been able to locate is the aforementioned signature page and the first page of an arbitration agreement which contains a fax line indicating that it was sent from Dreyfuss in New York. This first page states that “the Federal Arbitration Act shall govern the interpretation, enforcement and all proceedings pursuant to this Agreement,” but that, to the extent that the FAA “is inapplicable, California law pertaining to agreements to arbitrate shall apply.” The first page also contains a broad arbitration clause which covers “all claims or controversies [] past, present or future, whether or not arising out of my employment (or its termination),” and which further specifically states that it covers “claims for wages or other compensation due.” The next paragraph contains the following language, which completes the first page: “Except as otherwise provided in this Agreement, both the Company and I agree that neither of us shall initiate or prosecute any lawsuit or administrative action ... in any way related to any claim covered by this.... ” Of course, because no second page has been produced, it is not clear in what way or ways the agreement signed by Dreyfuss “otherwise provided.”

In the course of further discovery ordered by the district court, TGS was able to produce at least three types of documents containing arbitration agreements, [553]*553which had been signed by TGS employees during the period of Dreyfuss’s employment, but no single standard document containing an arbitration clause. Based upon this discovery, Judge Sullivan denied TGS’s motion to compel arbitration, holding that the demonstrable differences among the several agreements in the record established that TGS “has not met its burden of proving the existence of a valid arbitration agreement” between itself and Dreyfuss.

“We review the district court’s determination of the arbitrability of [Dreyfuss’s] claim de novo, while accepting the court’s factual determinations unless clearly erroneous.” Garten v. Kurth, 265 F.3d 136, 141-42 (2d Cir.2001). Further, “the ultimate question of whether the parties agreed to arbitrate is determined by state law.” Bell v. Cendant Corp., 293 F.3d 563, 566 (2d Cir.2002). The parties do not dispute that New York law is controlling.

TGS declares that “federal arbitration policy ... demands that arbitration clauses be interpreted as broadly as possible, that there be a presumption of arbitrability, and that any doubts or ambiguities be resolved in favor of arbitration.” It then asserts that the application of this policy in the instant case would center on the fact that “[o]n the very first page of the arbitration agreement [Dreyfuss signed, he] expressly agreed to arbitrate claims for ‘wages and other compensation due.’ ” According to TGS, this is all that is needed to compel arbitration here because “under any reasonable reading of the agreement, Dreyfuss’s claims for failure to pay commission are arbitrable,” and “there is absolutely no basis for concluding that the missing pages contained a contradictory provision nullifying the express inclusion of claims for ‘wages and other compensation due.’ ” The fact that the two pages of the agreement signed by Dreyfuss in the record do not set forth terms “such as the [arbitral] forum, the identity of and method for selecting arbitrators, apportionment of fees, arbitration procedures, choice of law, and the like” is of no moment because these are “non-essential terms.”

But this is not the law. It is true that, when considering the question of whether a particular dispute falls within the coverage of an arbitration agreement, a court should be guided by the principle that, under the FAA, “any doubts concerning the scope of arbitrable issues should be resolved in favor of arbitration, whether the problem at hand is the construction of the contract language itself or an allegation of waiver, delay, or a like defense to arbitrability.” Moses H. Cone Memorial Hosp. v. Mercury Constr. Corp., 460 U.S. 1, 24-25, 103 S.Ct. 927, 74 L.Ed.2d 765 (1983). But the issue in this case is not whether Dreyfuss’s claims for unpaid commissions fall within the scope of the arbitration clause set forth on the first page of the contract he signed; the issue is whether the two pages of that agreement which are in the record are sufficient to constitute an enforceable agreement. And this issue is governed by the principles of contract law and not merely, as TGS asserts, on an “inquiry” into “whether the parties have, anywhere in their agreement, evidenced an intent to arbitrate certain claims.” That is, “the purpose of Congress [in enacting the FAA] in 1925 was to make arbitration agreements as enforceable as other contracts, but not more so.” Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co., 388 U.S. 395, 404 n. 12, 87 S.Ct. 1801, 18 L.Ed.2d 1270 (1967) (emphasis added). Accordingly, “though the presumption in favor of arbitration is strong, the law still requires that parties actually agree to arbitration before it will order them to arbitrate a dispute.” Opals on Ice Lingerie v. Bodylines Inc., 320 F.3d 362, 369 (2d Cir.2003).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
349 F. App'x 551, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dreyfuss-v-etelecare-global-solutions-us-inc-ca2-2009.