Opinion ID: 3046724
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: this court’s cruz decision

Text: In Cruz v. Cingular Wireless, LLC, this Court enforced an arbitration agreement and applied Concepcion to facts remarkably similar to those in the present case. The Cruz plaintiffs were mobile telephone customers of AT&T Mobility, LLC (“ATTM”) (formerly Cingular Wireless). The plaintiffs’ service contract with ATTM contained (1) a mandatory arbitration clause, (2) a class action waiver, and (3) a non-severability provision (also called a “blow-up clause”) stating that if the class action waiver were “found to be unenforceable, then the entirety of [the] arbitration provision shall be null and void.” Cruz, 648 F.3d at 1207.9 8 The Supreme Court responded to the dissent’s argument that “class proceedings are necessary to prosecute small-dollar claims that might otherwise slip through the legal system.” Id. at 1753. The majority stated that “States cannot require a procedure that is inconsistent with the FAA, even if it is desirable for unrelated reasons.” Id. 9 The contract also contained a changes-to-agreement clause. Id. at 1207 n.4. The Court cited and applied the revised version of the arbitration provision, pursuant to the changes-toagreement clause. Id. 19 The Cruz plaintiffs brought a class action alleging ATTM violated the FDUTPA by charging for a “Roadside Assistance Plan” they never ordered. Id. at 1207–08. ATTM filed a motion to compel arbitration, which the district court granted. The plaintiffs appealed. Id. at 1208. This Court affirmed, concluding that we did not need to decide whether Florida law would invalidate the class action waiver because even if it did, the law would be preempted by the FAA, per Concepcion. Id. at 1215. To the extent that Florida public policy voided the ATTM class action waiver because the Cruz plaintiffs’ claim “must proceed as a class action or not at all,” Concepcion “specifically rejected this public policy argument.” Id. at 1212 (“The dissent claims that class proceedings are necessary to prosecute small-dollar claims that might otherwise slip through the legal system. But States cannot require a procedure that is inconsistent with the FAA, even if it is desirable for unrelated reasons.” (quoting Concepcion, 131 S. Ct. at 1753)). This Court rejected the Cruz plaintiffs’ argument that Concepcion extends only to state laws that impose non-consensual class-wide arbitration, and thus did not apply in Cruz because the non-severability provision in the ATTM contract ensured that ATTM would not be forced into class arbitration, merely class litigation. Id. at 1213–14. We explained that this argument lacked merit because 20 (1) the non-consensual elimination of arbitration altogether was even more inconsistent with the FAA than the non-consensual requirement of class-wide arbitration; and (2) the parties in Concepcion were not being forced into class arbitration either. Cruz, 648 F.3d at 1213–14.10 The Cruz plaintiffs also argued “that Concepcion only preempts inflexible, categorical state laws that mechanically invalidate class waiver provisions in a generic category of cases” but that Florida law, unlike the Discover Bank rule, “invalidates class action bans only when the individualized facts of the case demonstrate that the ban is functionally exculpatory.” Id. at 1213. In support, the plaintiffs proffered (1) affidavits from Florida consumer law attorneys stating they would not represent plaintiffs individually in pursuing their claims against ATTM because it would not be cost-effective to do so, and (2) statistics showing only a tiny percentage of ATTM customers have arbitrated a dispute with it. Id. at 1214. This Court rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments because the plaintiffs’ “evidence goes only to substantiating the very public policy arguments that were expressly 10 We explained, “It would be anomalous indeed if the FAA—which promotes arbitration—were offended by imposing upon arbitration nonconsensual procedures that interfere with arbitration’s fundamental attributes, but not offended by the nonconsensual elimination of arbitration altogether.” 648 F.3d at 1213 (citation omitted). We pointed out that the Concepcions “faced no [more] risk of being forced into class arbitration” than the Cruz plaintiffs, because (1) “nonconsensual class arbitration was already prohibited” by Supreme Court precedent, and (2) “the arbitration agreement in Concepcion contained the very same blow-up clause that is present here.” Id. at 1213–14. 21 rejected by the Supreme Court in Concepcion—namely, that the class action waiver will be exculpatory, because most of these small-value claims will go undetected and unprosecuted.” Id. Thus, this Court concluded that, given Concepcion, “our resolution of this case does not depend on a construction of Florida law.” Id. at 1215. Rather, “[t]o the extent that Florida law would require the availability of classwide arbitration procedures in this case” because “the case involves numerous small-dollar claims by consumers against a corporation, . . . such a state rule is inconsistent with and thus preempted by FAA § 2.” Id.