Opinion ID: 174092
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: bank of america

Text: BOA is not a FINRA member and did not directly agree to subject itself to arbitration under FINRA's terms. Appellants must provide an alternate reason for finding the arbitration agreements are enforceable against BOA. [S]tate contract law governs the threshold question of whether an enforceable arbitration agreement exists between litigants. ... The Supreme Court has ruled that state contract law governs the ability of nonsignatories to enforce arbitration provisions. Donaldson Co., Inc. v. Burroughs Diesel, Inc., 581 F.3d 726, 731-32 (8th Cir.2009) (internal quotes omitted). [T]raditional principles of state law allow a contract to be enforced by or against nonparties to the contract through assumption, piercing the corporate veil, alter ego, incorporation by reference, thirty-party beneficiary theories, waiver and estoppel[.] Arthur Andersen, 129 S.Ct. at 1902. The Supreme Court of Missouri in Dunn Industrial Group, Inc. v. Lafarge Corp., 112 S.W.3d 421 (Mo.2003), found a third party guarantor could not be bound by an agreement to arbitrate in a construction contract to which it was not a signatory, where the contract to which it was a signatory did not incorporate the arbitration provision of the construction contract. Id. at 435. The court noted, [a]rbitration is a matter of contract, and a party cannot be required to arbitrate a dispute that it has not agreed to arbitrate. As such, a guarantor who is not a signatory to a contract containing an arbitration clause is generally not bound by the arbitration clause. However, in a majority of state courts, including Missouri, due to the strong federal policy in favor of arbitration, arbitration agreements are enforced against guarantors or sureties where the arbitration agreement is incorporated by reference into the guaranty or performance bond. Id. The parties do not argue the employment contracts signed by BOA in any way incorporated the FINRA membership contract arbitration clauses.