Williams v. Aetna Finance Co.

83 Ohio St. 3d 464
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 4, 1998
DocketNo. 97-1670
StatusPublished
Cited by480 cases

This text of 83 Ohio St. 3d 464 (Williams v. Aetna Finance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. Aetna Finance Co., 83 Ohio St. 3d 464 (Ohio 1998).

Opinions

Alice Robie Resnick, J.

This appeal presents four principal issues for our review: (1) whether the trial court properly denied ITT’s motion to compel arbitration; (2) the propriety of the grounds for Williams’s recovery against ITT, under a theory of civil conspiracy, upheld by the court of appeals; (3) whether ITT was found derivatively liable for punitive damages based on a third party’s violations of the CSPA and HSSA; and (4) whether punitive damages were improperly assessed, and whether the amount of punitive damages awarded is so excessive that a due process violation occurred. For the following reasons, after [471]*471a comprehensive review of the record, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals on each issue.

I

Arbitration

ITT argues in its fourth proposition of law that the broad arbitration provision in the loan agreement for the home equity loan Williams signed with ITT should have been enforced, and that this case should never have proceeded to trial. Furthermore, ITT takes issue with the court of appeals’ determination that ITT was not “materially prejudiced” by the trial court’s refusal to compel arbitration. The court of appeals found no prejudice, stating that ITT got the “real thing” (a trial) and also that “[arbitration is merely a substitute for litigation.”

ITT cites a long line of Ohio and federal cases, including cases decided by this court and by the United States Supreme Court, to support its arguments regarding a strong policy in favor of enforcement of arbitration clauses in written agreements. See, e.g., Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co. (1967), 388 U.S. 395, 87 S.Ct. 1801,18 L.Ed.2d 1270; Allied-Bruce Terminix Cos., Inc. v. Dobson (1995), 513 U.S. 265, 115 S.Ct. 834, 130 L.Ed.2d 753.

We agree with ITT that this court’s precedents do indicate that arbitration is encouraged as a method to settle disputes. See, e.g., ABM Farms, Inc. v. Woods (1998), 81 Ohio St.3d 498, 692 N.E.2d 574; Council of Smaller Enterprises v. Gates, McDonald & Co. (1998), 80 Ohio St.3d 661, 687 N.E.2d 1352; Schaefer v. Allstate Ins. Co.' (1992), 63 Ohio St.3d 708, 711-712, 590 N.E.2d 1242, 1245. A presumption favoring arbitration arises when the claim in dispute falls within the scope of the arbitration provision. An arbitration clause in a contract is generally viewed as an expression that the parties agree to arbitrate disagreements within the scope of the arbitration clause, and, with limited exceptions, an arbitration clause is to be upheld just as any other provision in a contract should be respected. See Council of Smaller Enterprises, 80 Ohio St.3d at 668, 687 N.E.2d at 1357.

R.C. 2711.01(A) provides that a provision in a written contract such as is at issue in the present ease “to settle by arbitration a controversy that subsequently arises out of the contract, or out of the refusal to perform the whole or any part of the contract * * * shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, except upon grounds that exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract.”

We have carefully examined the record, and we acknowledge, as the court of appeals did, that nowhere in the record did the trial court make a specific determination that the arbitration clause was unenforceable on equitable grounds, such as unconscionability. The trial court merely found the arbitration clause [472]*472invalid, but gave no reason for the finding of invalidity. The record reveals that, given the procedural history of this case on the arbitration issue, the trial court may have been somewhat confused on what effect the resolution of the appeal on that issue by the court of appeals (left untouched by this court’s decision to dismiss the further appeal) had on subsequent proceedings on remand.

This court’s precedents, as well as the directives of the United States Supreme Court, call into question some of the conclusions reached by the court of appeals regarding the enforceability of the arbitration provision at issue. Nevertheless, while not necessarily agreeing with all of the statements made by the court of appeals in support of its ultimate conclusion upholding the ruling of the trial court regarding arbitration, we do agree with that ultimate conclusion on this issue.

The record in this case clearly would support a finding that the arbitration clause violated principles of equity, given all of the attendant facts and circumstances. Williams filed an affidavit in the trial court regarding the arbitration clause’s inclusion in the loan agreement, to support her challenge to the specific validity of the arbitration clause. After taking into account both the procedural and substantive progress of this case, we find that the complete record compels the conclusion that the trial court, while not specifically declaring the arbitration agreement to be invalid (i.e., because the arbitration clause itself was unconscionable), did in essence make that determination.

The trial court was entitled initially to view the arbitration clause at issue with some skepticism. In the situation presented here, the arbitration clause, contained in a consumer credit agreement with some aspects of an adhesion contract, necessarily engenders more reservations than an arbitration clause in a different setting, such as in a collective bargaining agreement, a commercial contract between two businesses, or a brokerage agreement. See, generally, 1 Domke on Commercial Arbitration (Rev.Ed.1997) 17-18, Section 5.09. When the further complete situation of this case is taken into account, ie., Williams’s evidence regarding the conspiracy between ITT and Blair as the fundamental reason for her entering into the loan agreement in the first place, and also the questionable conditions under which the dispute would be submitted to arbitration as revealed in the record, there is further support for the invalidity of the arbitration clause.

A virtually identical arbitration clause was challenged as unenforceable in Patterson v. ITT Consumer Fin. Corp. (Cal.App.1993), 14 Cal.App.4th 1659, 18 Cal.Rptr.2d 563. In Patterson the court considered whether the loan agreement was an adhesion contract on facts virtually the same in all relevant respects to the loan agreement at issue in the case sub judice, and determined that it was “indisputable that the contract was one of adhesion.” 14 Cal.App.4th at 1664, 18 Cal.Rptr.2d at 566.

[473]*473The court examined the one-sided rules establishing the prerequisites to achieving an arbitration hearing, and also considered that a consumer was required by the rules to prepay a substantial amount of fees as a condition precedent to arbitration. The court concluded, “The likely effect of these procedures is to deny a borrower against whom a claim has been brought any opportunity to a hearing, much less a hearing held where the contract was signed, unless the borrower has considerable legal expertise or the money to hire a lawyer and/or prepay substantial hearing fees. * * * In a dispute over a loan of $2,000 it would scarcely make sense to spend a minimum of $850 just to obtain a participatory hearing.” Id. at 1666,18 Cal.Rptr.2d at 566.

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Bluebook (online)
83 Ohio St. 3d 464, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-aetna-finance-co-ohio-1998.