Court Opinion

ID: 9487378
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:15:00.059567+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:14.040020
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc.
The panel majority “[d]amn[s] with faint praise”1 this court’s decision in Mautz & Oren v. Teamsters Local No. 279, 882 F.2d 1117 (7th Cir.1989). Although it cites this case as the law of the circuit, it does not follow its holding. Mautz & Oren provides specifically that a Union defendant need only move “for an order to compel arbitration, or [seek] a stay of the litigation pending arbitration, in order to properly advise the court of its position that the litigation should not proceed without prior resort to the contractual grievance machinery.” Id. at 1126. This case provides objective criteria for ascertaining whether a party has invoked an arbitration clause. Today, by allowing the panel opinion to stand, the court interjects needless ambiguity into the law of the circuit in an area in which the bench and bar have a right to expect a reasonable degree of predictability and certainty.
The gravity of this situation is compounded by the panel majority’s methodology. In a clear departure from the established division of responsibility between trial and appellate courts, it relies largely upon concessions exacted from the defendant on appeal, especially at oral argument, as a substitute for the objective criteria set forth in Mautz & Oren.
Because I believe that respect for the doctrines of stare decisis and precedent require that we adhere to our decision in Mautz & Oren, I respectfully dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc.

. Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, Epistle IV.