Snowden v. Checkpoint Check Cashing, 01-2149.

• Citation: 290 F.3d 631
• Decision Date: 15 May 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-2149.,01-2149.
• Parties: Patricia SNOWDEN, Plaintiff-Appellee, and Karen Dowhite; Sheila Diane Dowhite; Lilistyne Dowhite; Cynthia Powell; Renee Wingo Roberts; Michael Smith, Sr., Plaintiffs, v. CHECKPOINT CHECK CASHING; Elite Financial Services, Incorporated, Defendants-Appellants, and Unknown other Persons and Entities, Defendants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

290 F.3d 631

Patricia SNOWDEN, Plaintiff-Appellee, and Karen Dowhite; Sheila Diane Dowhite; Lilistyne Dowhite; Cynthia Powell; Renee Wingo Roberts; Michael Smith, Sr., Plaintiffs, v. CHECKPOINT CHECK CASHING; Elite Financial Services, Incorporated, Defendants-Appellants, and Unknown other Persons and Entities, Defendants.

No. 01-2149.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued February 26, 2002.

Decided May 15, 2002.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED: William Willis Carrier, III, Tydings & Rosenberg, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellants. John Thomas Ward, Ward, Kershaw & Minton, P.A., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Ann M. Grillo, Tydings & Rosenberg, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellants. Richard A. Fisher, Logan, Thompson, Miller, Bilbo, Thompson & Fisher, P.C., Cleveland, Tennessee, for Appellee.

Before NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge, HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge, and JACKSON, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

Vacated and remanded by published opinion. Senior Judge HAMILTON wrote the opinion, in which Judge NIEMEYER and Judge JACKSON joined.

OPINION

HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.

In this interlocutory appeal, Elite Financial Services, Inc. (Elite) challenges the district court's denial of its motion to compel arbitration of, and stay proceedings with respect to, various federal and Maryland state law claims lodged against it by Patricia Snowden (Snowden), one of Elite's deferred deposit transaction customers. For reasons that follow, we vacate the district court's order denying Elite's motion to compel arbitration and stay proceedings and remand with instructions.

I.

During the period between June 12, 1999 and February 7, 2000, Snowden, a Maryland citizen, engaged in twelve so-called "deferred deposit" transactions at stores owned and operated by Elite.¹ In a deferred deposit transaction, a customer tenders a check to the store that is cashed for a service fee with the understanding that the check will not be negotiated until some later, agreed upon time.

Of the twelve deferred deposit transactions in which Snowden engaged, only the November 4, 1999 agreement memorializing the sixth deferred deposit transaction contained an arbitration provision. From this point forward, we will refer to this agreement in its entirety as "the November 4, 1999 Agreement." Of relevance in the present appeal, the November 4, 1999 Agreement provided that Snowden and Elite (t/a CheckPoint) mutually agreed that either party had the right to elect to resolve by binding arbitration:

[a]ny claim, dispute, or controversy (whether in contract, tort, or otherwise, whether pre-existing, present or future, and including statutory, common law, intentional tort, and equitable claims) arising from or relating to this Agreement or any check or instrument cashed by CheckPoint or fee charged by CheckPoint either prior or subsequent to the date of this Agreement....

(J.A. 54). Pursuant to the November 4, 1999 Agreement, the parties also mutually agreed that: (1) "[i]f arbitration is chosen, it will be conducted with the American Arbitration Association (the `AAA') pursuant to the AAA's Commercial Arbitration Rules"; (2) "THERE SHALL BE NO AUTHORITY FOR ANY CLAIMS TO BE ARBITRATED ON A CLASS ACTION BASIS"; (3) "AN ARBITRATION CAN ONLY DECIDE CHECKPOINT[']S OR YOUR CLAIM AND MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE OR JOIN THE CLAIMS OF OTHER PERSONS WHO MAY HAVE SIMILAR CLAIMS"; (4) any "participatory arbitration hearing ... will take place in the federal judicial district" of Snowden's residence; (5) Elite "will advance the first $50 of the filing and hearing fees for any claim in connection with the arbitration"; and (6) "[t]his arbitration agreement is made pursuant to a transaction involving interstate commerce, and shall be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (`FAA'), 9 U.S.C. Sections 1-16." Id. From this point forward, we will refer to all of the language in the November 4, 1999 Agreement pertaining to the subject of arbitration as the "Arbitration Agreement."

The substantive provisions of the FAA that are relevant in the present appeal are sections 2, 3, and 4. 9 U.S.C. §§ 2-4. Section 2 of the FAA provides that a written provision for arbitration "in any maritime transaction or a contract evidencing a transaction involving commerce ... shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract." 9 U.S.C. § 2. Section 3 of the FAA requires the federal district court in which the action is brought, "upon any issue referable to arbitration under an agreement in writing for such arbitration," to "stay the trial of the action" pending arbitration once it is satisfied that the issue is arbitrable under the agreement. Id. § 3. Finally, section 4 directs the federal district court to order arbitration once it is satisfied that an agreement for arbitration has been made and has not been honored.

On June 26, 2000, Snowden, Karen Dowhite, Sheila Dowhite, Lilistyne Dowhite, Cynthia Powell, Renee Roberts, and Michael Smith, Sr. (collectively the Plaintiffs) filed a purported class action suit in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland against Elite.² The essential allegations of the complaint are: (1) that the Plaintiffs' deferred deposit transactions with Elite were loans; and (2) that the service fee charged by Elite for such transactions constituted interest. Based on these allegations, the Plaintiffs asserted various state and federal claims, including but not limited to claims alleging violation of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1601-93, violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), violation of the Maryland Consumer Protection Act, Md.Code Ann., Commercial Law II § 13-408 (2000), and fraud under Maryland common law.

Elite subsequently moved to compel arbitration of all of Snowden's claims and to stay proceedings in the district court with respect to those claims, or in the alternative, to dismiss all of Snowden's claims (Elite's Motion to Compel Arbitration/Stay Proceedings).³ The district court denied the motion without prejudice. In so doing, the district court operated under the belief that the issue of the enforceability of the Arbitration Agreement was inextricably intertwined with the issue of Snowden's suitability as a class representative. The district court stated its intention to revisit its decision to deny Elite's Motion to Compel Arbitration/Stay Proceedings at the time that it decided whether to certify the case as a class action.

Elite noted a timely appeal of the district court's denial of its Motion to Compel Arbitration/Stay Proceedings with respect to Snowden's claims. This is the appeal that is now before us.

II.

Although Snowden makes no challenge to our appellate jurisdiction, the fact that the district court not only denied Elite's Motion to Compel Arbitration/Stay Proceedings without prejudice, but also stated its intention to revisit the ruling at a later time triggered alarm bells of a premature appeal for our consideration. Significantly, when our appellate jurisdiction is in doubt, we must sua sponte raise and address the matter. Lee v. Wetzel, 244 F.3d 370, 373 (5th Cir.2001) (federal appellate court must always be sure of its appellate jurisdiction and, if there is doubt, must address the jurisdictional issue sua sponte if necessary); Braswell Shipyards, Inc. v. Beazer East, Inc., 2 F.3d 1331, 1336 (4th Cir.1993) (federal appellate court is compelled to raise sua sponte the issue of whether the district court properly certified for immediate appeal a judgment entered on less than all of parties' claims, and if certification was unwarranted, then appeal must be dismissed).

Having considered the relevant statutory language, we are fully satisfied that we possess appellate jurisdiction. Under 9 U.S.C. § 16(a)(1)(A)-(B), the FAA expressly permits an immediate appellate challenge to a district court's denial of a motion to compel arbitration and stay proceedings pending the outcome of arbitration. Id. ("An appeal may be taken from — (1) an order — (A) refusing a stay of any action under section 3 of this title, (B) denying a petition under section 4 of this title to order arbitration to proceed...."); Brown & Root, Inc. v. Breckenridge, 211 F.3d 194, 202 (4th Cir.2000) (citing 9 U.S.C. § 16(a)(1)(B) and stating that § 16 "provides for immediate appeal of an order denying a § 4 petition to compel arbitration"). Here, the record unequivocally reflects that the district court entered an order denying Elite's Motion to Compel Arbitration/Stay Proceedings. Under the plain language of § 16(a)(1)(A)-(B) of the FAA, this circumstance is all that is necessary to grant us appellate jurisdiction in this case. We note that our sister circuits have reached the same conclusion in materially similar situations. Sandvik AB v. Advent Int'l Corp., 220 F.3d 99, 102-04 (3d Cir.2000) (holding district court's order denying motion to compel arbitration was immediately appealable under § 16(a) of the FAA, even though district court stated that it would have to determine whether there was an actual agreement to arbitrate); Koveleskie v. SBC Capital Markets, Inc., 167 F.3d 361, 363 (7th Cir.1999) (holding that, despite the district court's declaration of a need for discovery before it could decide arbitration issue, there was no doubt that motion to compel arbitration was denied, and was thus immediately appealable under § 16(a) of the FAA). Having satisfied ourselves that we possess appellate jurisdiction, we now proceed to consider the merits of Elite's appeal.

III.

According to Elite, the Arbitration Agreement contractually obligates Snowden to arbitrate all of her claims in the present action, and the FAA required that the district court grant its Motion to Compel Arbitration/Stay...