THE TERMS OF THE CONTRACT CONTROL WHETHER THE COURT OR THE ARBITRATOR DETERMINES THE MATTER IS ARBITRABLE; HERE THAT DETERMINATION HAS BEEN DELEGATED TO THE ARBITRATOR BY THE CONTRACT (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Manzanet-Daniels, determined that the contract controls and the arbitrator, not the court, must rule on whether the matter is arbitrable:
The motion court correctly declined to enjoin the arbitration proceeding filed by respondent Baltimore Orioles with the American Arbitration Association [AAA]. The duty to arbitrate arises from contract … .
Pursuant to section 19.3 of the partnership agreement, the Orioles and the Nationals agreed to arbitrate “any disputes” before the AAA when MLB has … a financial interest, and to do so pursuant to AAA Commercial Rules. Those rules include Rule 7(a), pursuant to which an “arbitrator shall have the power to rule on his or her own jurisdiction, including any objections with respect to the existence, scope or validity of the arbitration agreement or to the arbitrability of any claim or counterclaim.”
These provisions evince a clear and unmistakable intent to delegate the threshold arbitrability question of whether MLB had a financial interest in the Nationals to the AAA … . …
“When the parties’ contract delegates the arbitrability question to an arbitrator, a court may not override the contract. In those circumstances, a court possesses no power to decide the arbitrability issue. That is true even if the court thinks that the argument that the arbitration agreement applies to a particular dispute is wholly groundless” … . Matter of WN Partner, LLC v Baltimore Orioles Ltd. Partnership, 2019 NY Slip Op 08383, First Dept 11-19-19