PENNSYLVANIA SUPERIOR COURT UPHOLDS ARBITRATION CLAUSE DESPITE LACK OF SIGNATURE
The Pennsylvania Superior Court has reinforced the general rule that arbitration agreement does not need both parties’ signatures unless expressly required by law or the language of the contract itself.
In doing so, the court reject the notion that a recent decision in a nursing home arbitration case altered that general rule.
In a non-precedential opinion issued Dec. 13, a three judge panel unanimously upheld an Allegheny County trial judge’s ruling allowing this to go forward and ultimately confirming a $51,000 arbitration award to defendant B. Keppel Trucking. The appeals court rejected an argument by plaintiff Pittsburgh Logistics Systems Inc., that the parties never had a valid and enforceable agreement to arbitrate.
Reference: Zack Neddler, Pennsylvania Law Weekly, 39 PLW 1190 (December 20, 2016); Pittsburgh Logistics Systems v. B. Keppel Trucking, LLC, PICS No. 16-1535
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