Damico v. Lennar Carolinas, LLC

Citation844 S.E.2d 66,430 S.C. 188
Decision Date10 June 2020
Docket NumberOpinion No. 5730,Appellate Case No. 2016-002339
CourtCourt of Appeals of South Carolina
Parties Patricia DAMICO and Lenna Lucas, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Joshua and Brettany Buetow, Edward and Sylvia Dengg, Jonathan and Theresa Douglass, Anthony and Stacey Ray, Danny and Ellen Davis Morrow, Czara and Chad England, Bryan and Cynthia Camara, and Matthew Collins, Respondents, v. LENNAR CAROLINAS, LLC, Spring Grove Plantation Development, Inc., Manale Landscaping, LLC, Super Concrete of SC, Inc., Southern Green, Inc. TJB Trucking/Leasing, LLC, Paragon Site Constructors, Inc., Civil Site Environmental and Rick Bryant, Individually, Defendants, Of which Spring Grove Plantation Development, Inc., Manale Landscaping, LLC, Super Concrete of SC, Inc., Southern Green, Inc. TJB Trucking/Leasing, LLC, and Civil Site Environmental are Respondents. Lennar Carolinas, LLC, Appellant, v. The Earthworks Group, Inc., Volkmar Consulting Services, LLC, Geometrics Consulting, LLC, Land/Site Services, Inc., Myers Landscaping, Inc., A.C. & A. Concrete, Inc., Knight's Concrete Products, Inc., Knight's Redi-Mix, Inc., Coastal Concrete Southeast, LLC, Coastal Concrete Southeast II, LLC, Guaranteed Framing, LLC, Ozzy Construction, LLC, Construction Applicators Charleston, LLC, LA New Enterprises, LLC, Decor Corporation, DVS, Inc., Raul Martinez Masonry, LLC, Alpha Omega Construction Group, Inc., South Carolina Exteriors, LLC, Builders Firstsource-Southeast Group, LLC, and Low Country Renovations and Siding, LLP, Third-Party Defendants, Of which Volkmar Consulting Services, LLC, Land/Site Services, Inc., Myers Landscaping, Inc., A.C. & A. Concrete, Inc., Knight's Concrete Products, Inc., Knight's Redi-Mix, Inc., Coastal Concrete Southeast, LLC, Coastal Concrete Southeast II, LLC, Guaranteed Framing, LLC, Ozzy Construction, LLC, Construction Applicators Charleston, LLC, LA New Enterprises, LLC, Decor Corporation, DVS, Inc., Raul Martinez Masonry, LLC, Alpha Omega Construction Group, Inc., South Carolina Exteriors, LLC, Builders Firstsource-Southeast Group, LLC, are also Respondents. Decor Corporation, Fourth Party Plaintiff, v. Baranov Flooring, LLC, DJ Construction Services, LLC, Creative Wood Floors, LLC, Geraldo Cunha, Ebenezer Flooring, LLC, Emmanuel Flooring and Siding, LLC, Eusi Flooring and Covering, LLC, Nicolas Flores, Alexander Martinez, Isidru Mejia, Juan Perez, N&B Construction, LLC, Jose Dias Rodrigues, Livia Sousa, Jose Paz Castro Hernandez, Divinio Aperecido Corgosinho, Ricardo Chiche, CEBS Construction, Bayshore Siding and Flooring, Sebastio Luiz de Araujo, and John Does 1-4, Fourth-Party Defendants.

James Lynn Werner and Katon Edwards Dawson, Jr., both of Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, LLP, of Columbia, and Jenna Brooke Kiziah McGee, of Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, LLP, of Charleston, all for Appellant.

Thomas Frank Dougall, William Ansel Collins, Jr., and Michal Kalwajtys, all of Dougall & Collins, of Elgin, for Respondent Ozzy Construction, LLC.

Stephen P. Hughes, of Howell Gibson & Hughes, PA, of Beaufort, for Respondent Builders Firstsource-Southeast Group, LLC.

Steven L. Smith, Zachary James Closser, and Samuel Melvil Wheeler, all of Smith Closser, PA, of Charleston; and Rogers Edward Harrell, III, of Murphy & Grantland, PA, of Columbia, all for Respondents Knight's Concrete Products, Inc. and Knight's Redi-Mix, Inc.

Ronald G. Tate, Jr., and Robert Batten Farrar, both of Gallivan, White & Boyd, PA, of Greenville, for Respondent Volkmar Consulting Services, LLC.

Sidney Markey Stubbs, of Baker Ravenel & Bender, LLP, of Columbia, for Respondent DVS, Inc.

David Cooper Cleveland and Trey Matthew Nicolette, both of Clawson & Staubes, LLC, of Charleston, for Respondent Myers Landscaping, Inc.

John Calvin Hayes, IV, of Hayes Law Firm, LLC, Jesse Sanchez, of The Law Office of Jesse Sanchez, both of Charleston; Michael J. Jordan, of The Steinberg Law Firm, LLP, of Goose Creek; and Catherine Dunn Meehan, of The Steinberg Law Firm, LLP, of Charleston, all for Respondents Patricia Damico, Joshua Buetow, Brettany Buetow, Bryan Camara, Cynthia Camara, Matthew Collins, Ellen Davis Morrow, Jonathan Douglass, Theresa Douglass, Czara England, Chad England, Lenna Lucas, and Danny Morrow.

Brent Morris Boyd, Timothy J. Newton, and Rogers Edward Harrell, III, all of Murphy & Grantland, PA, of Columbia, for Respondents Coastal Concrete Southeast, LLC, and Coastal Concrete Southeast II, LLC.

David Shuler Black, of Howell Gibson & Hughes, PA, of Beaufort, for Respondent TJB Trucking/Leasing, LLC.

Erin DuBose Dean, of Tupper, Grimsley, Dean & Canaday, P.A., of Beaufort, for Respondents LA New Enterprises, LLC, and Raul Martinez Masonry, LLC.

Christine Companion Varnado, of Seibels Law Firm, PA, of Charleston; and Alan Ross Belcher, Jr., and Derek Michael Newberry, both of Hall Booth Smith, PC, of Mt. Pleasant, all for Respondent Guaranteed Framing, LLC.

Stephen Lynwood Brown and Catherine Holland Chase, both of Young Clement Rivers, of Charleston; and Preston Bruce Dawkins, Jr., of Aiken Bridges Elliott Tyler & Saleeby, P.A., of Florence, all for Respondent Alpha Omega Construction Group, Inc.

David Starr Cobb, of Turner Padget Graham & Laney, PA, of Charleston, and Everett Augustus Kendall, II, and Brian Lincoln Craven, both of Murphy & Grantland, PA, of Columbia, all for Respondent Construction Applicators Charleston, LLC.

Shanna Milcetich Stephens and Wade Coleman Lawrimore, both of Anderson Reynolds & Stephens, LLC, of Charleston, for Respondent A.C.& A. Concrete, Inc.

Robert Trippett Boineau, III, Heath McAlvin Stewart, III, and John Adam Ribock, all of McAngus Goudelock & Courie, LLC, of Columbia, for Respondent Spring Grove Plantation Development, Inc.

Bachman S. Smith, IV, of Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, PA, of Charleston, for Respondent Southern Green, Inc.

John Elliott Rogers, II, of The Ward Law Firm, PA, of Spartanburg, for Respondent Land/Site Services, Inc.

Carmen Vaughn Ganjehsani, of Richardson Plowden & Robinson, PA, of Columbia, and Samia Hanafi Nettles, of Richardson Plowden & Robinson, PA, of Mt. Pleasant for Respondent Decor Corporation.

Jenny Costa Honeycutt, of Best Honeycutt, P.A., of Charleston, for Respondent South Carolina Exteriors, LLC.

Michael Edward Wright, of Robertson Hollingsworth Manos & Rahn, LLC, and Michael Wade Allen, Jr., and R. Patrick Flynn, both of Pope Flynn, LLC, all of Charleston, all for Respondent Super Concrete of SC.

Francis Heyward Grimball and James H. Elliott, Jr., both of Richardson Plowden & Robinson, PA, of Mt. Pleasant, for Respondent Manale Landscaping, LLC.

Kathy Aboe Carlsten, of Copeland, Stair, Kingma & Lovell, LLP, and Keith Emge, Jr., of Resnick & Louis, P.C., both of Charleston, for Respondent Civil Site Environmental, Inc.

HILL, J.:

Certain homeowners in a Berkeley County development sued the general contractor Lennar Carolinas, LLC (Lennar), the developer, and various subcontractors, alleging defective construction. Lennar impleaded other subcontractors as third party defendants and moved to compel arbitration of the entire dispute. The circuit court denied the motion, finding the arbitration agreement included not just the arbitration section of the parties' sales contract but also sections from a separate warranty agreement (as well as parts of the deeds and covenants), and that the arbitration agreement was unconscionable. The circuit court further found the South Carolina Uniform Arbitration Act (SCUAA) applied, not the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), and there had not been compliance with the SCUAA's conspicuous notice requirements. Lennar now appeals. We conclude the FAA, rather than the SCUAA, applies, and the circuit court erred in not considering the arbitration section as an independent arbitration agreement. We further hold the arbitration section constituted a valid agreement to arbitrate, which the FAA requires us to enforce.

I.

All of the Respondent homeowners, except Lenna Lucas, purchased new homes to be constructed in the development. As part of the transaction, they signed a ten page Purchase and Sales Agreement (PA) containing an arbitration section. Lucas is the second owner of a home, but in her amended complaint, she alleges a breach of contract cause of action based upon the PA. Section 16 of the PA is entitled "Mediation/Arbitration," and begins as follows:

The parties to this Agreement specifically agree that this transaction involves interstate commerce and that any Dispute (as hereinafter defined) shall first be submitted to mediation and, if not settled during mediation, shall thereafter be submitted to binding arbitration as provided by the Federal Arbitration Act ( 9 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq. ) and not by or in a court of law or equity....

Due to the strong South Carolina and federal policy favoring arbitration, arbitration agreements are presumed valid. See Cape Romain Contractors, Inc. v. Wando E., LLC , 405 S.C. 115, 125, 747 S.E.2d 461, 466 (2013). We review circuit court determinations of arbitrability de novo but will not reverse a circuit court's factual findings reasonably supported by the evidence. Parsons v. John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods of the Carolinas, Inc. , 418 S.C. 1, 6, 791 S.E.2d 128, 130 (2016).

A. Whether the FAA Applies

We first consider whether the FAA applies. We hold it does, for two reasons. First, the PA provides the parties "specifically agree that this transaction involves interstate commerce." We must enforce this agreement like any other contract term. Munoz v. Green Tree Fin. Corp. , 343 S.C. 531, 539, 542 S.E.2d 360, 363–64 (2001) (finding FAA applied because parties had agreed contract involved interstate commerce). Second, the transaction involved commerce in fact. The FAA applies "to any arbitration agreement regarding a transaction that in fact involves interstate commerce, regardless of whether or not the parties contemplated an...

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2 cases
  • Damico v. Lennar Carolinas, LLC
    • United States
    • South Carolina Supreme Court
    • 14 de setembro de 2022
    ...consideration of unconscionable terms outside of an arbitration provision (the Prima Paint doctrine).1 Damico v. Lennar Carolinas, LLC , 430 S.C. 188, 844 S.E.2d 66 (Ct. App. 2020). The court of appeals found the circuit court's analysis ran afoul of the Prima Paint doctrine as it relied on......
  • Damico v. Lennar Carolinas, LLC
    • United States
    • South Carolina Supreme Court
    • 14 de setembro de 2022

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