MZM Construction Co., Inc. v. New Jersey Building Laborers Statewide Benefit Funds, ___ F.3d ___ (3d Cir. 2020). Decisions about arbitration just keep on coming, from both New Jersey and federal courts. This latest opinion, by Judge Restrepo, addresses what he called (quoting a law review article) “‘the queen of all threshold issues’ in arbitration law”: who decides ‘whether an agreement exists, when the putative agreement includes an arbitration provision empowering an arbitrator to decide whether an agreement exists?” Judge Restrepo rightly referred to...

Flanzman v. Jenny Craig, Inc., ___ N.J. ___ (2020). As discussed here, the Appellate Division in this employment discrimination case held that an arbitration provision that did not specify a forum or process for the arbitration did not reflect a meeting of the minds and was not enforceable. Defendant obtained Supreme Court review and that Court reversed in a unanimous opinion by Justice Patterson that applied de novo review to the legal issues involved. The Court restored the judgment of the Law Division that arbitration was required, but modified that judgment in one respect. Justice...

Skuse v. Pfizer, Inc., ___ N.J. ___ (2020). As discussed here, the Appellate Division in this case reversed a trial level ruling that compelled the plaintiff employee to arbitrate a dispute that she had with her employer, Pfizer. Pfizer had e-mailed employees what it called a “training module” that contained slides regarding Pfizer’s mandatory arbitration policy. That material stated, among other things, that employees who continued their employment at Pfizer for 60 days would be “deemed” to have agreed to the arbitration provision. Employees were asked to...