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Shroyer v. Foster3/28/2002
er the same facts as the claims against PHI. Because PHI can act only through its employees, we find that the actions of its employees, while acting within the course and scope of their employment, are covered under the terms of the arbitration clause. The strong public policy favoring arbitration and analogous jurisprudence support this conclusion. See Collins v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith, Inc., 561 So.2d at 955-956; Folkland v. Thomson McKinnon Securities, Inc., 484 So.2d 310 (La. App. 3d Cir. 1986); Pritzker v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, 7 F.3d 1110, 1121 (3d Cir. 1993); Thomas v. A.R. Baron & Co., Inc., 967 F.Supp. 785, 789 (S.D.N.Y. 6/3/97). Thus, the trial court erred in denying the exception raising the objection of prematurity in relation to the claims against LeBas.
Application of the Arbitration Clause to the Fosters' Third Party Demand
Finally, appellants assert that in determining whether to enforce the arbitration agreement, the trial court erred in considering: 1) whether arbitration would promote a speedy resolution of all of the claims, and 2) whether arbitration of the third-party claim would resolve the original demand. The Fosters counter with the general argument that the facts of the third-party demand are inextricably intertwined with the facts of the Shroyers' original demand and should not be subject to arbitration.
Historically, as an exception to the broad pro-arbitration policy embodied in the FAA, some federal courts recognized the intertwining doctrine, finding that a district court could properly deny a stay pending arbitration when arbitrable issues were inextricably interwoven with nonarbitrable claims. See discussion addressing those authorities in Tenneco Resins, Inc. v. Davy International, AG, 770 F.2d 416, 422 (5th Cir. 1985). Since then, the United States Supreme Court has rejected the intertwining doctrine in Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc. v. Byrd, 470 U.S. 213, 217, 105 S.Ct. 1238, 1241, 84 L.Ed. 2d 158 (1985), finding that the FAA requires district courts to compel arbitration of pendent arbitrable claims even where the result would be possibly inefficient maintenance of separate proceedings in different forums.
We have not discovered any state jurisprudence addressing this intertwining doctrine. Nevertheless, looking to the federal jurisprudence as guidance and recognizing again this state's broad pro-arbitration policy, we conclude that the Fosters' third-party demands are subject to arbitration. We reach this conclusion despite the connexity between the arbitrable claims asserted in the third-party demand and the non-arbitrable claims asserted by the Shroyers in their original demand.
For the above reasons, we conclude that appellants have satisfied their burden of showing the existence of a valid agreement to arbitrate that applies to the Fosters' claims against PHI and LeBas. Thus, the trial court's judgment denying appellants' dilatory exception raising the objection of prematurity is reversed. The exception is hereby granted and the Fosters' claims against PHI and LeBas are dismissed. Costs of this appeal are assessed to defendants-appellees, Claude E. Foster and Mary A. Foster.
REVERSED AND RENDERED.
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