The Supreme Court of the United States has granted certiorari to review the decision of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Sutter v. Oxford Health Plans, 675 F.3d 215 (3d Cir. 2012). The Third Circuit’s decision is discussed here. The Supreme Court docket number is 12-135, and the case as captioned in that Court is Oxford Health Plans, LLC v. Sutter.
This appeal joins another arbitration-related case, American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, No. 12-133, on the Supreme Court’s docket. That appeal is of a decision of the Second Circuit that was reported at 667 F.3d 204 (2d Cir. 2012). The question presented in that case, which is scheduled for oral argument on February 27, 2013, is “whether the Federal Arbitration Act permits courts, invoking the ‘federal substantive law of arbitrabiliity,’ to invalidate arbitration agreements on the ground that they do not permit class-arbitration of a federal-law claim.”
Given the Court’s recent track record of ruling almost reflexively in favor of arbitration in virtually any circumstance, it may be doubted whether either Circuit Court ruling can stand.