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Class-action arbitration and interlocutory appeals
April 19, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

(1) Court orders arbitration. (2) Arbitrator interprets agreement as allowing class-wide arbitration. (3) Court upholds arbitrator.

No big surprise, as the arbitrator is the one who is supposed to interpret the contract and to decide "procedural" matters such as class-wide proceedings.

The surprise was that the court entertained an "appeal" from the arbitrator's procedural ruling before the arbitration had been completed. Call it an interlocutory appeal, if you will.

My view: Seems to me that entertaining such interlocutory appeals of arbitrators' procedural rulings does not advance the process. Correct on the merits.

Timeline:

• January 1, 2005: Court orders arbitration.
• February 7, 2005: Arbitration begins.
• October 12, 2005: Arbitrator rules on class-action issue.
• April 6, 2006: Court approves arbitrator's decision.

  Roughly a five months delay.

Genus Credit Mgmt. Corp. v. Jones (D. Md. 04/06/2006)

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