Exchange Mut. Ins. Co. v. Haskell Co., 83-5811

• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)
• Citation: 742 F.2d 274
• Docket Number: No. 83-5811,83-5811
• Parties: EXCHANGE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The HASKELL COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee, Rogersville Paving Company, Inc.; John Mack Pierce; and Mack Slaughter, Defendants.
• Decision Date: 08 August 1984

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742 F.2d 274 EXCHANGE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
The HASKELL COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee,
Rogersville Paving Company, Inc.; John Mack Pierce; and
Mack Slaughter, Defendants. No. 83-5811. United States Court of Appeals,
Sixth Circuit. Aug. 8, 1984.

Gary S. Rubenstein, argued, Rubenstein, Schulman, LeRoy & Bennett, Nashville, Tenn., for plaintiff-appellant.

Rogers, Towers, Bailey, Jones & Gay, G. Kenneth Norrie, argued, Jacksonville, Fla., James O. Phillips, III, William L. Jenkins, Rogersville, Tenn., for defendant-appellee.

Before KEITH and MARTIN, Circuit Judges, and SWYGERT ^*, Senior Circuit Judge.

PER CURIAM:

This is an appeal from a district court ruling which dissolved a temporary restraining order and directed that the action proceed to arbitration. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the decision of the Honorable Robert Taylor of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

The appellee, the Haskell Company, entered into an agreement with Mitchell Homes to build a shopping center. Appellee

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Haskell was the prime contractor, pursuant to the contract with Mitchell. Haskell subcontracted a portion of the work out to appellee, Rogersville Co. Under the subcontract, Rogersville agreed to install the parking lot for the shopping center. On August 12, 1980, Rogersville obtained a performance bond through appellant, Exchange Mutual Insurance Company. Exchange Mutual, as surety, issued the bond in favor of Haskell, conditioned upon Rogersville performing its obligations under the subcontract. The bond provided that Haskell would be indemnified for any loss it might sustain in the event Rogersville did not perform its obligations under the subcontract.

A dispute arose and Haskell made a claim under the performance bond. Pursuant to its claim, Haskell initiated arbitration proceedings against Exchange Mutual. Exchange Mutual filed a motion to restrain arbitration, which was granted by the Chancery Court. A hearing was held in United States District Court on August 29, 1983 wherein the trial judge dissolved the temporary restraining order and ordered the action to proceed to arbitration. We are in agreement with the district court's order.

The Supreme Court has recently stated that the courts should give broad deference to the enforcement of arbitration clauses.

Although our holding in [Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Corp., 388 U.S. 395, 87 S.Ct. 1801, 18 L.Ed.2d 1270 (1967] extended only to the specific issue presented, the Courts of Appeals have since consistently concluded that questions of arbitrability must be addressed with a healthy regard for the federal policy forming arbitration. We agree. The Arbitration Act establishes that as a matter of federal law, any doubts concerning the scope of arbitrable issues should be resolved in favor of arbitration, whether the problem at hand is the construction of the contract language itself or an allegation of waiver, delay, or alike defense to arbitrability.

Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital v. Mercury Construction Corp., 460 U.S. 1, 103 S.Ct. 927, 74 L.Ed.2d 765 (1983) (footnote omitted).

The district court found appellant's duty to...