HomeServices of America, Inc., et al. v. Scott Burnett, et al.

The signatories to a contract agreed to arbitrate any claim or dispute arising out of the contract and delegated to the arbitrator the power to determine whether a dispute is subject to arbitration. The plaintiffs, who signed the contract, sued a nonsignatory parent company asserting liability based on the nonsignatory’s relationship with its subsidiary, a signatory. The nonsignatory defendant sought to compel arbitration to determine whether the plaintiffs’ claims are arbitrable. The question presented is: Whether the court must leave the question of arbitrability to the arbitrator, as the First, Second, Third, and Sixth Circuits have held, or whether the court may decide the question of arbitrability for itself, notwithstanding the contract’s delegation of that issue to the arbitrator, as the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits have held.