Kasie Stevens-Bratton v. TruGreen

675 F. App'x 563
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 11, 2017
Docket16-5161
StatusUnpublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 675 F. App'x 563 (Kasie Stevens-Bratton v. TruGreen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kasie Stevens-Bratton v. TruGreen, 675 F. App'x 563 (6th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

DAMON J. KEITH, Circuit Judge.

Kasie Stevens-Bratton (“Stevens-Brat-ton”) appeals from the district court’s order granting TruGreen, Inc.’s (“Tru-Green”) motion to compel arbitration and denying her class certification, which dismissed all claims against TruGreen. The district court concluded that an agreement between Stevens-Bratton and TruGreen required arbitration even though the agreement expired before the relevant events that are the subject of Stevens-Bratton’s lawsuit. Because the dispute between Stevens-Bratton and TruGreen does not “arise under” the expired agreement, we REVERSE the judgment compelling arbitration and REMAND for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

TruGreen is a lawn care service provider headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. On May 15, 2013, Stevens-Bratton entered into an agreement with TruGreen for lawn care services. The agreement included three specific provisions at issue in this case:

CONTACT INFORMATION. If I have provided TruGreen with my cell phone number, I agree that TruGreen may contact me on that number using an automatic telephone dialing system or prerecorded or artificial voice to discuss my account and lawn care services, including current and possible future services, customer service and billing. I understand that providing my cell phone number is not required to purchase Tru-Green’s services and that I may revoke this permission at any time.
MANDATORY ARBITRATION. Purchaser and TruGreen agree that any claim, dispute or controversy (“Claim”) between them or against the other or the employees, agents or assigns of the other, and any Claim arising from or relating to this agreement or the relationships which result from this agreement including but not limited to any tort or statutory Claim shall by resolved by neutral binding arbitration by the American Arbitration Association .(“AAA”), under the Rules of the AAA in effect at the time the Claim is filed (“AAA Rules”)..... Each party shall be responsible for paying its own attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses, the arbitration fees and arbitrator compensation shall be payable as provided in the AAA Rules. However, for a Claim of $15,000 or less brought by Purchaser in his/her/ its individual capacity, if Purchaser so requests in writing, TruGreen will pay Purchaser’s arbitration fees and arbitrator compensation due to the AAA for such Claim to the extent they exceed any filing fees that the Purchaser would pay to a court with jurisdiction over the Claim. The arbitrator’s power to conduct any arbitration proceeding under this arbitration agreement shall be limited as follows: any arbitration proceeding under this agreement will not be consolidated or joined with any arbitration proceeding under any other agreement, or involving any other property or premises, and will not proceed as a class action or private attorney general action. The foregoing prohibition on consolidated, class action and private attorney general *566 arbitrations is an essential and integral part of this arbitration clause and is not severable from the remainder of the clause.... This arbitration agreement is made pursuant to a transaction involving interstate commerce and shall be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act. 9 U.S.C. Sections 1-16.... Neither party shall sue the other party with respect to any matter in dispute between the parties other than for enforcement of this arbitration agreement or of the arbitrator’s award. THE PARTIES UNDERSTAND THAT THEY WOULD HAVE HAD A RIGHT OR OPPORTUNITY TO LITIGATE DISPUTES THROUGH A COURT AND TO HAVE A JUDGE OR JURY DECIDE THEIR CASE, BUT THEY CHOOSE TO HAVE ANY DISPUTES DECIDED THROUGH ARBITRATION.
CLASS ACTION WAIVER. Any Claim must be brought in the parties’ individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, representative, multiple plaintiff, or similar basis (“Class Action”), and the parties expressly waive any ability to maintain any Class Action in any forum whatsoever. The arbitrator shall not have authority to combine or aggregate similar claims or conduct any Class Action. Nor shall the arbitrator have authority to make an award to any person or entity not a party to the arbitration. Any claim that all or part of this Class Action Waiver is unenforceable, unconscionable, void, or voidable may be determined only in a court of competent jurisdiction and not by an arbitrator. THE PARTIES UNDERSTAND THAT THEY WOULD HAVE HAD A RIGHT TO LITIGATE THROUGH A COURT AND TO HAVE A JUDGE OR JURY DECIDE THEIR CASE AND TO BE PARTY TO A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION, HOWEVER, THEY UNDERSTAND AND CHOOSE TO HAVE ANY CLAIMS DECIDED INDIVIDUALLY, THROUGH ARBITRATION.

TruGreen provided lawn care services to Stevens-Bratton from May 15, 2013 until May 15, 2014, when Stevens-Bratton terminated the agreement with TruGreen. On November 9, 2013, Stevens-Bratton registered her cell phone number with the National Do-Not-Call Registry. Beginning on January 27, 2015, Stevens-Bratton received over ten telemarketing calls on her cell phone from TruGreen, who used an automatic telephone dialing system. Despite Stevens-Bratton’s requests that Tru-Green stop calling her, the calls continued.

Thereafter, Stevens-Bratton filed a complaint against TruGreen alleging violations under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TOPA”), 47 U.S.C. § 227, and sought class certification, or in the alternative, a stay of certification briefing pending discovery in federal district court. TruGreen filed an answer and a motion to dismiss and compel arbitration, or in the alternative, to stay the litigation. The district court denied Stevens-Bratton’s motion for class certification, granted TruGreen’s motion to compel arbitration, dismissed all claims against TruGreen, and entered a judgment for TruGreen. Stevens-Bratton timely appealed.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

“This Court reviews de novo a district court’s conclusions of law regarding whether to compel arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act.” Lowry v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., 522 Fed.Appx. 281 (6th Cir. 2013) (citing Answers in Genesis of Ky., Inc. v. Creation Ministries, Int'l, Ltd., 556 F.3d 459, 469 (6th Cir. 2009)). “[Bjefore compelling arbitration a *567 court must determine whether a valid arbitration agreement exists and whether the dispute falls within that agreement’s scope.” Rowan v. Brookdale Senior Living Cmtys., Inc., 647 Fed.Appx. 607, 609 (6th Cir. 2016) (citing Fazio v. Lehman Bros., Inc., 340 F.3d 386, 392 (6th Cir. 2003)). “The nonmoving party ... may challenge an arbitration agreement ‘upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract.’ ” Id. (quoting 9 U.S.C. § 2).

B. Analysis

1. Arbitrability

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
675 F. App'x 563, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kasie-stevens-bratton-v-trugreen-ca6-2017.