BDO USA, LLP v. Coe

• Decision Date: 16 September 2014
• Docket Number: No. A14A1455.,A14A1455.
• Citation: 329 Ga.App. 79,763 S.E.2d 742
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
• Parties: BDO USA, LLP et al., v. COE et al.

329 Ga.App. 79

763 S.E.2d 742

BDO USA, LLP et al.

v.COE et al.

No. A14A1455.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Sept. 16, 2014.

DLA Piper, Paul N. Monnin, James Michael Rusert, Atlanta, for Appellants.

Caldwell & Watson, Harmon W. Caldwell Jr., Harry W. MacDougald, Atlanta, Loewinsohn Flegle Deary, Jeven R. Sloan, for Appellees.

Opinion

RAY, Judge.

BDO USA, LLP, and Michael Whitacre (collectively, “BDO”) filed a petition in the Superior Court of Fulton County to compel arbitration of their disputes with Douglas Coe, Jacqueline Coe, GFLIRB, LLC, DBICHA, LLC, and ALAKE, LLC (collectively, “Coe”). Following a hearing on Coe's motion to dismiss, the trial court found that the issues that BDO claimed to be arbitrable were then pending before an Illinois court which had jurisdiction to hear a motion to compel arbitration and, therefore, in light of OCGA § 9–9–6(a), it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to consider the merits of BDO's petition. Accordingly, the trial court dismissed BDO's petition without prejudice. On appeal, BDO contends that the trial court had jurisdiction to consider BDO's petition to compel arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 USC § 1 et seq. (“FAA”), which it claims preempted OCGA § 9–9–6(a). For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

BDO's petition, in pertinent part, alleges that BDO provided tax consulting services to Douglas Coe pursuant to (at least) four written consulting agreements. In 2001 and 2002, Coe entered into a “distressed debt” tax shelter and then claimed deductions on 2001–2007 tax returns for artificial losses generated by the tax shelter. The Internal Revenue Service disallowed the deductions and imposed back taxes, interest, and penalties against Coe.

In the consulting agreements, Coe and BDO agreed to arbitrate any dispute, controversy, or claim arising in connection with the performance or breach of the respective agreements in the city “in which the BDO office providing the relevant Services exists, unless the parties agree to a different locale.” BDO alleged that the office providing those relevant services is located in Atlanta, Georgia, but that in contravention of their agreements to arbitrate, Coe sued BDO in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, asserting various claims arising in connection with the services provided by BDO to Coe under their written agreements. In its petition, BDO asked the trial court to order Coe to arbitrate each of the claims asserted against BDO in the Illinois complaint before an arbitration panel venued in Atlanta and, further, to enjoin Coe from prosecuting the Illinois complaint against BDO and from initiating judicial proceedings against BDO in any other forum. BDO alleged that venue for its action was proper in the Superior Court of Fulton County under both OCGA § 9–9–4 and § 4 of the FAA, 9 USC § 4.

Coe moved to dismiss BDO's petition, contending that under Georgia law the court presiding over the Illinois action, not the Georgia superior court, was the only court that could decide BDO's arbitrability defense to Coe's Illinois claims. Relying on OCGA § 9–9–6(a), the trial court determined that it lacked jurisdiction over BDO's petition because the issues which BDO claimed to be arbitrable were before the Illinois court, which had had jurisdiction to consider a motion to compel arbitration. The trial court granted Coe's motion and dismissed BDO's petition without prejudice. “The dismissal of an action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction is a question of law that we review de novo.” Babb v. Babb, 293 Ga.App. 140, 140(1), 666 S.E.2d 396 (2008). See Goddard v. City of Albany, 285 Ga. 882, 883(1), 684 S.E.2d 635 (2009).

1. At issue is whether the trial court erred in dismissing BDO's petition to compel arbitration under authority of OCGA § 9–9–6(a). BDO contends that the trial court erred in relying on OCGA § 9–9–6(a) because Georgia courts have jurisdiction to consider a claim filed under § 4 of the FAA, 9 USC § 4 and that, in any event, OCGA § 9–9–6(a) is preempted by the federal law.

Section 2 of the FAA provides that arbitration agreements “shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract.” 9 USC § 2. Further, “[t]he FAA applies in state and federal courts to all contracts containing an arbitration clause that involves or affects interstate commerce.” American Gen. Financial Svcs. v. Jape, 291 Ga. 637, 638(1), 732 S.E.2d 746 (2012) (“Jape ”). Coe does not dispute that the consulting contracts containing the arbitration clauses at issue involve or affect interstate commerce. It follows that the FAA applies to the parties' agreements to arbitrate. See GF/Legacy Dallas, Inc. v. Juneau Constr. Co., LLC, 282 Ga.App. 14, 15–16, 637 S.E.2d 511 (2006) (as the contract, which included an arbitration clause, undisputably involved interstate commerce, it was governed by the FAA).

OCGA § 9–9–6(a), which forms part of the Georgia Arbitration Code, OCGA § 9–9–1 et seq. (the “GAC”), provides that “[a] party aggrieved by the failure of another to arbitrate may apply for an order compelling arbitration,” and sets forth the procedures therefore. Similarly, § 4 of the FAA provides in pertinent part:

A party aggrieved by the alleged failure, neglect, or refusal of another to arbitrate under a written agreement for arbitration may petition any United States district court which, save for such agreement, would have jurisdiction ... for an order directing that such arbitration proceed in the manner provided for in such agreement.

Unlike § 4 of the FAA, however, OCGA § 9–9–6(a) requires that “[i]f an issue claimed to be arbitrable is involved in an action pending in a court having jurisdiction to hear a motion to compel arbitration, the application shall be made by motion in that action.” Id.

Generally, “state courts are presumed to have concurrent jurisdiction with federal courts to hear federal causes of action unless Congress places exclusive jurisdiction in the federal courts by affirmatively divesting state courts of concurrent jurisdiction.” Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp. v. Stovall Nissan, Inc., 224 Ga.App. 295, 296, n. 2, 480 S.E.2d 322 (1997). The FAA has “substantive supremacy,” but requires an independent jurisdictional basis for access to a federal forum, such that “state courts have a prominent role to play as enforcers of agreements to arbitrate” (Punctuation omitted.) Vaden v. Discover Bank, 556 U.S. 49, 59(II), 129 S.Ct. 1262, 173 L.Ed.2d 206 (2009). BDO argues that notwithstanding that § 4 of the FAA refers to a petition to compel arbitration in “any United States district court,” the trial court, through the exercise of its concurrent jurisdiction over federal causes of action, should have considered BDO's petition under authority of § 4 of the FAA and not dismissed the petition by applying OCGA § 9–9–6(a).¹

It is not clear, however, if a state court has jurisdiction over a motion to compel arbitration under § 4 of the FAA. See Hilton Constr. Co. v. Martin Mechanical Contractors, Inc., 251 Ga. 701, 703, 308 S.E.2d 830 (1983) (finding “the question of the state court jurisdiction of § 4... is unsettled”). As our Supreme Court recently noted in Jape, while the United States Supreme Court has recognized “that the FAA creates a body of federal substantive law of arbitrability applicable in both federal and state courts, the Supreme Court has not had the occasion to determine whether the FAA'sprocedural provisions are applicable in state courts.” Jape, supra at 640(2), 732 S.E.2d 746. See Southland Corp. v. Keating, 465 U.S. 1, 16(III), n. 10, 104 S.Ct. 852, 79 L.Ed.2d 1 (1984) (“In holding that the [FAA] preempts a state law that withdraws the power to enforce arbitration agreements, we do not hold that §§ 3 and 4 of the [FAA] apply to proceedings in state courts”). In particular, our Supreme Court pointed out that the United States Supreme Court “has acknowledged ... that the procedural provisions found in §§ 3 and 4 of the Act appear to apply by their terms only in federal court.” Jape, supra at 641(2), 732 S.E.2d 746. See Volt Information Sciences v. Bd. of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior Univ., 489 U.S. 468, 477, n. 6, 109 S.Ct. 1248, 103 L.Ed.2d 488 (1989) (noting that § 4 of the FAA refers to “any United States district court”).

In view of the foregoing, our Supreme Court in Jape suggests that the procedural provisions found in §§ 3 and 4 of the FAA do not apply to state court proceedings.² Further, the GAC “is a body of procedural law setting forth the public policy of this State with respect to the enforcement of agreements to arbitrate.” Continental Ins. Co. v. Equity Residential Props. Trust, 255 Ga.App. 445, 445, 565 S.E.2d 603 (2002). Georgia courts generally apply Georgia law to procedural matters. See, e.g., id. (noting that “[t]he rule of lex fori dictates that Georgia courts will apply Georgia law governing procedural or remedial matters”).³

Jape also determined that OCGA § 5–6–34(b), a Georgia procedural law pertaining to interlocutory appeals, governed appellate jurisdiction of the underlying appeal, notwithstanding that OCGA § 5–6–34(b) was inconsistent with 9 USC § 16(a)(1)(B) of the FAA, which also addressed the availability of appeal, and notwithstanding that the parties had agreed that the FAA governed their agreement.⁴

Our Supreme Court did so, however, only upon concluding that OCGA § 5–6–34(b) was not preempted by the FAA. Jape, supra at 639–644(2), 732 S.E.2d 746. Accordingly, we conclude that the pertinent state-law procedural provision, in this case OCGA § 9–9–6(a), applies to BDO's petition unless the Georgia law is otherwise preempted by the FAA. See American Gen. Financial Svcs. v. Vereen, 282 Ga.App. 663, 666, 639 S.E.2d 598 (2006) (holding that “procedural rules established by a state for the arbitration process that do not undermine the purposes and objectives of the FAA are not preempted”) (citation and punctuation...