Opinion ID: 177132
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Howsam Framework

Text: The Supreme Court's decision in Howsam v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., 537 U.S. 79, 84, 123 S.Ct. 588, 154 L.Ed.2d 491 (2002), clarified the division of labor between arbitrators and judges in cases like this one and provides the framework for our analysis. In Howsam, the Court determined that the question of whether a grievance has been brought within a time period set by a National Association of Securities Dealers rule is a gateway procedural dispute for the arbitrator, not a court, to decide. 537 U.S. at 85, 123 S.Ct. 588. The Court held that procedural questions which grow out of the dispute and bear on its final disposition are presumptively not for the judge, but for an arbitrator, to decide. So, too, the presumption is that the arbitrator should decide allegations of waiver, delay, or a like defense to arbitrability. Id. at 84-85, 123 S.Ct. 588 (emphasis in original) (internal citations and quotations omitted). The Howsam Court noted that the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act (RUAA), which incorporate[s] the holdings of the vast majority of state courts and the law that has developed under the FAA supported its conclusion. Howsam, 537 U.S. at 84-85, 123 S.Ct. 588 (citing RUAA § 6(c) and comment 2). The RUAA provides that an arbitrator shall decide whether a condition precedent to arbitrability has been fulfilled. RUAA § 6(c). Under Howsam, questions such as whether prerequisites to arbitration have been met, or questions of waiver, delay, or other defenses to arbitrability, should be determined by the arbitrator. See Howsam, 537 U.S. at 84-85, 123 S.Ct. 588; see also John Wiley, 376 U.S. at 557, 84 S.Ct. 909 (arbitrator, not court, should decide whether the party seeking arbitration had properly completed grievance procedure that was prerequisite to arbitration under parties' agreement); Moses H. Cone Mem'l Hosp. v. Mercury Constr. Corp., 460 U.S. 1, 24-25, 103 S.Ct. 927, 74 L.Ed.2d 765 (1983) (waiver, delay, or a like defense are questions for arbitrator). Our circuit has followed Howsam in distinguishing between substantive and procedural arbitrability questions, and in holding that the latter are presumptively for an arbitrator to decide. In Employers Insurance Co. of Wausau v. Century Indemnity Co., 443 F.3d 573, 581 (7th Cir. 2006), for example, we held that the question of whether an arbitration agreement forbade consolidated arbitration was a procedural one for the arbitrator to answer, noting that [t]he Supreme Court made clear in Howsam that procedural issues are presumptively for the arbitrator to decide. (citation omitted). And in Zurich American Insurance Co., we found that questions about the preclusive effect of a California state judgment on the scope of the parties' arbitrable disputes were similarly an issue for the arbitrator. 466 F.3d at 581. We concluded that because the issue of preclusion was being raised by a party as a defense to arbitration, it was a procedural question under Howsam that fell to the arbitrator to decide. Id.