Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Arbitration clause doesn't divest courts of subject-matter jurisdiction

So says the Tenth District today in Minkin v. Ohio State Home Services.



Here the defendant failed to appear and defend, and a default judgment was entered. The defendant later moved for relief from the judgment, and still later moved to compel arbitration.

The court denied relief from judgment, and held both that the existence of the arbitration clause does not divest Ohio courts of subject-matter jurisdiction, and that the arbitration provision was waived by the defendant's failure to timely assert it.

This decision is unremarkable under existing Ohio law, but I write about to note that notwithstanding the lip service given by Ohio courts to the idea that Ohio law "favors resolution of disputes on their merits," courts in fact are very reluctant to disturb default judgments, even when the parties had previously agreed to adjudicate their dispute in an alternative forum.

No comments:

Post a Comment