Court Opinion

ID: 9660462
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:14:09.325569+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:19.653970
License: Public Domain

DAVID B. GAULTNEY, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. At the core of this dispute is Ford’s exercise of its right of first refusal, a right established in the Dealership Agreement, to which WMCO was not a signatory, and a right set forth in the Purchase and Sale Agreement, to which WMCO was a signatory. The two agreements- — and this lawsuit — are interlocked through this contractual right of first refusal. To assert its claims, WMCO must rely on the terms of the Purchase and Sale Agreement; its complaint must be based on rights conveyed to it through the Agreement. The Purchase and Sale Agreement contains an arbitration provision. Recently we said that when a signatory to a written agreement containing an arbitration provision must rely on the terms of the written agreement in asserting its claim against a nonsignatory, the nonsignatory may compel arbitration of the claim. See Brown v. Anderson, 102 S.W.3d 245, 249-50 (Tex.App.-Beaumont 2003, pet. denied). The principle applies here. I would compel arbitration of the claim.