A short per curiam opinion issued yesterday by the United States Supreme Court concerning an employment dispute in Oklahoma is likely to result in consternation in California.
Nitro-Lift Technologies, L.L.C. v. Howard, 568 U.S. ___ (2012) involved a dispute between an employer and two of its former employees. The employees had signed confidentiality and noncompetition agreements that included arbitration clauses. When the employees quit and began working for a competitor, the employer served a demand for arbitration. The employees responded by filing suit in Oklahoma state court for a declaration that the noncompetition agreements were null and void. The U.S. Supreme Court picks up the tale:
The trial court found that the contract contained a valid arbitration clause, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court did not hold otherwise. It nonetheless assumed the arbitrator’s role by declaring the noncompetition agreements null and void. The state court insisted that its “[own] jurisprudence controls this issue” and permits review of a “contract submitted to arbitration where one party assert[s] that the underlying agreement [is] void and unenforceable.” 273 P. 3d, at 26. But the Oklahoma Supreme Court must abide by the FAA [Federal Arbitration Act], which is “the supreme Law of the Land,” U.S. Const., Art. VI, cl. 2, and by the opinions of this Court interpreting that law. “It...
