Arbitration & Mediation

Failure to Designate Rules Will Not Void Arbitration Agreement

By Christopher B. Hopkins, Esq.

The parties in Premier Real Estate Holdings LLC v. Park I. Butch, Atlantic Melbourne, Inc., and Melbourne Properties, LLC (Polen, May, and Gerber) had a fairly standard contract with an arbitration clause -- but they failed to fill in the blank about which rules apply to arbitration and who administers it. Does that void the agreement to arbitrate?

Consistently, Florida intermediate appellate courts are saying, "no." Herein, the failure to designate the rules underwhich arbitration would be governed did not invalidate the arbitration clause. This holding is premised on Florida Statute 682.02, which provided "gap filler" terms in situations where the court can settle these types of questions.

Although the Fourth DCA did not cite the cases, the same court had issued similar rulings in 2009.

Full post as published by Florida Arbitration Law on January 27, 2010 (boomark / email).