Opinion ID: 765873
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Sales Confirmations and Arbitration Clauses at Issue

Text: 11 After extensive negotiations between James Pitts and Bombay Dyeing, Chelsea sent purchase orders during the months of May, June, July and August of 1996 for goods with a total value of $458,055. According to plaintiffs' complaint, Bombay Dyeing accepted the orders in one of three ways: (1) by providing a formal, written Confirmation, (2) by providing informal, written confirmation through a responsive letter or fax transmission, or (3) by orally confirming its acceptance of the order. Bombay Dyeing contends that it responded to each purchase order by sending its standard Confirmation to Chelsea, several of which were received into evidence in original form at an evidentiary hearing held by the district court. The district court aptly described these Confirmations and the arbitration clause contained therein: 12 Each of the Chelsea Confirmations is printed on translucent tissue style paper and bears a legend on the top of its face page which is identical to that found on the Wadia Confirmation . . . The Chelsea Confirmations also bear on the back page what appear to be twenty-two numbered paragraphs entitled Conditions, including at Condition 13 an arbitration clause similar to that found in the Wadia Confirmation. The presentation of this clause . . . is obscured by several printing defects. First, and most confusingly, the Conditions are arranged in columns juxtaposed in reverse order so that Conditions 1-12 are printed in the second of the two columns, with Conditions 14 through 22 appearing in the first. Condition 13 straddles both columns in reverse order, so that it begins in the lower right hand corner of the page, and concludes in the upper left hand corner. Second, the majority of the Chelsea Confirmations submitted by Bombay bear a first column which is printed partially off the page. Third, the Conditions are printed in type which is so faint as to border on the ephemeral, a condition which is compounded by the translucent nature of the tissue paper itself. Fourth, the details of the particular articles ordered by Chelsea are typewritten in heavy capitalized characters on the thin tissue of each Chelsea Confirmation's face page, effectively obliterating in places the faintly written Conditions on the reverse side. 13 Notwithstanding the foregoing disparaging comments regarding the Confirmation's legibility, the district court was able to reproduce the text of paragraph 13 which turned out to be no more well-written than its predecessors. Paragraph 13 reads (once again, with all errors in the original): 14 All dispute and question whatever which shall rise between the parties here out of or as to the construction or application thereof or the respective right and obligation of the parties hereunder clause or things here in contain or any account of valuation to be made hereunder or as any other matter in any way relating to these presents shall be referred to arbitration in accordance with the for the same being in force as applicable to piece goods for export and which will be framed by the Cotton Textile Export Promotion Council in consultation with the Mills & Exporter Representatives selected in accordance with the provision there in nothing in the rules or arbitration or any implication there of which runs counter to the terms of conditions of the contraet shall be applied here to. 15 Nancy Pitts signed the front side of at least one of the Confirmations - that received by fax on May 5, 1996 - and there is no dispute that the signed page bore the same legend found on all Bombay Dyeing Confirmations, namely We hereby confirm having sold to you goods as detailed below on the terms and conditions as started (sic) herein and as printed overleaf. In an affidavit submitted to the district court, however, Nancy Pitts denied ever receiving or reading the reverse side of the form, and contended that she never had any discussions with Bombay Dyeing regarding arbitration as a means of dispute resolution. In fact, the Chelsea Square plaintiffs contend that no one at Chelsea ever saw the arbitration clauses at issue or discussed the possibility of arbitrating disputes with anyone from Bombay Dyeing.