Wilson v. Willis
| Decision Date | 10 April 2019 |
| Docket Number | Appellate Case No. 2016-001512,Opinion No. 27879 |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | Richard WILSON, Michael J. Antoniak, Jr., Marsha L. Antoniak, Anita L. Belton, Prescott Darren Bosler, Johnny Calhoun, Sallie Calhoun, Cynthia Gary, Robert Wayne Gary, Eugene P. Lawton, Jr., Jeanette Norman, James Robert Shirley, Robert W. Spires, Crystal Spires Wiley, Lewis S. Williams, Janie Wiltshire, Benjamin Franklin Wofford, Jr., and Rebecca Hammond Wofford, Petitioners, v. Laura B. WILLIS and Jesse A. Dantice, individually and as agents and/or brokers for Southern Risk Insurance Services, LLC, Travelers Casualty Insurance Company of America, Allied Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Peerless Insurance Company, Montgomery Mutual Insurance Company, Safeco Insurance Company of America, and Foremost Insurance Company, Southern Risk Insurance Services, LLC, Travelers Casualty Insurance Company of America, Allied Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Peerless Insurance Company, Montgomery Mutual Insurance Company, Safeco Insurance Company of America, Foremost Insurance Company, and Laurie Williams, Defendants, Of Whom Peerless Insurance Company, Montgomery Mutual Insurance Company, and Safeco Insurance Company of America are the Respondents, and Of Whom Laurie Williams is Petitioner. |
Thomas E. Hite, Jr. and Anne Marie Hempy, both of Hite and Stone, Attorneys at Law, of Abbeville; Jane H. Merrill, of Hawthorne Merrill Law, LLC, of Greenwood; and Leslie A. Bailey, Public Justice, of Oakland, California, for Petitioners.
C. Mitchell Brown, William C. Wood, Jr., A. Mattison Bogan, all of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP, of Columbia; and Robert C. Calamari, of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP, of Myrtle Beach, for Respondents.
The question before this Court is whether arbitration should be enforced against nonsignatories to a contract containing an arbitration clause. The circuit court denied the motion to compel arbitration. The court of appeals reversed and remanded, holding equitable estoppel should be applied to enforce arbitration against the nonsignatories. Wilson v. Willis , 416 S.C. 395, 786 S.E.2d 571 (Ct. App. 2016). We now reverse and remand for further proceedings, finding the circuit court properly denied the motion to compel arbitration.
This appeal arises out of fourteen lawsuits brought by various plaintiffs against (1) Laura Willis, an insurance agent; (2) Jesse Dantice, the insurance broker who hired Willis and made her the agent in charge of the insurance office; (3) their insurance agency, Southern Risk Insurance Services, LLC (Southern Risk), and (4) six insurance companies for which their office sold policies (the Insurers). The plaintiffs in the lawsuits were Willis's customers (the Insureds) and other insurance agents (the Agents) in competition with Willis and Southern Risk.
The Insureds filed twelve of the lawsuits, asserting claims against Willis, Dantice, and Southern Risk for, inter alia , violations of the Unfair Trade Practices Act (UTPA), common law unfair trade practices, fraud, and conversion. They also named the Insurers as defendants on a respondeat superior theory of liability for failing to adequately supervise or audit Willis and Southern Risk.
In general, the Insureds alleged (1) Willis engaged in fraudulent conduct, including forging insurance documents, taking cash payments, and converting the payments to her own use, resulting in the Insureds having either no coverage or reduced coverage; (2) Willis and the other defendants engaged in unfair and illegal tactics in an effort to "corner the retail insurance market" in Abbeville County; and (3) the defendants had a duty to investigate, train, and supervise Willis, "especially after she was fined, publicly reprimanded, and placed on probation for dishonesty by the South Carolina Insurance Commission in October 2011," or, in the alternative, Willis and/or Dantice acted with the express or implied permission of the other defendants.
The Agents—Richard Wilson and James Robert Shirley—filed the two remaining lawsuits. The Agents alleged Willis engaged in illegal business practices that effectively blocked them from the local market, resulting in a substantial loss of clients and revenue. They further asserted that Dantice, Southern Risk, and the Insurers had a duty to properly investigate, train, and supervise Willis, and also alleged the defendants either engaged in a civil conspiracy with Willis to destroy the businesses of other agents or failed to detect and stop Willis's wrongdoing. The Agents' claims included statutory and common law unfair trade practices, conspiracy, and tortious interference with existing and prospective contractual relations.
In their answers, the Insurers denied the majority of the substantive claims. None of the Insurers asserted the actions were subject to arbitration. Subsequently, however, three of the Insurers—Peerless Insurance Co., Montgomery Insurance Co., and Safeco Insurance Co. (hereinafter, Respondents)—filed motions to compel arbitration and dismiss the lawsuits. In support of their motions, Respondents asserted an arbitration clause contained in a 2010 agency contract (the Agency Agreement)1 entered into by Respondents with Southern Risk should be enforced against the nonsignatory Insureds and Agents (collectively, Petitioners) on the theories that Petitioners were third-party beneficiaries to the contract or were equitably estopped from asserting their nonparty status. Respondents indicated the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C.A. §§ 1 – 16 (2009), applied to the Agency Agreement and enforcement of its arbitration clause, as well as state law.
Respondents asserted equitable estoppel should preclude Petitioners' assertion of their nonsignatory status because Petitioners' claims were premised on duties that would not exist but for the Agency Agreement Respondents had with Southern Risk. Respondents maintained the Agency Agreement contained a broad provision requiring the parties to arbitrate any claims arising "in connection with the interpretation of th[e] Agreement, its performance or nonperformance." Based on the foregoing, they argued the nonsignatory Petitioners were bound by the arbitration clause contained in the Agency Agreement between Respondents and Southern Risk.
The circuit court denied the motions to compel arbitration. In concluding Respondents were not entitled to arbitration, the circuit court made the following findings: (1) there was no evidence of a valid contract requiring arbitration because the Agency Agreement was never signed by Southern Risk or, alternatively, the unsigned agreement was invalid because it violated the Statute of Frauds; (2) the arbitration clause was narrow in scope and inapplicable on its face to Petitioners' claims because the claims had no relation to and were not "in connection with the performance of the Agency Agreement," which, instead, controlled only the business relationship between Southern Risk and the Insurers, not the relationship between the Insureds and the Insurers; (3) the doctrine of equitable estoppel should not be used to enforce the arbitration clause against nonsignatories (i.e., Petitioners), as there was "absolutely no evidence whatsoever" they had consistently maintained the provisions of the Agency Agreement between Southern Risk and Respondents should be enforced to benefit them, they never sought any direct benefits from the Agency Agreement, and their claims against Respondents did not hinge on any rights found in the Agency Agreement but instead were grounded in principles recognized under South Carolina law; (4) South Carolina courts have declined to enforce arbitration provisions in cases of outrageous acts that are unforeseeable to reasonable consumers; and (5) Respondents waived any right to arbitration by delaying the assertion of their motion. The circuit court denied Respondents' joint motion for reconsideration, which, inter alia , argued Petitioners were seeking to invoke the provisions of the Agency Agreement for Petitioners' direct benefit, contrary to the circuit court's finding, so Petitioners should be subject to the arbitration clause in the Agency Agreement, despite their status as nonsignatories.
The court of appeals reversed and remanded, concluding the circuit court erred in failing to grant Respondents' motions to compel arbitration. The court of appeals held, in relevant part, that (1) the Agency Agreement (as well as its arbitration clause) was enforceable, despite the lack of Southern Risk's signature on the contract, because a contract accepted and acted on by the other party is enforceable, and the Agency Agreement did not violate the Statute of Frauds because the contract was for an indefinite term and, thus, could be performed within one year; (2) the arbitration provision was sufficiently broad to encompass the claims alleged; (3) Petitioners were equitably estopped from arguing that their status as nonsignatories to the Agency Agreement precluded enforcement of the arbitration provision because their "complaints seek to benefit from enforcement of other provisions in the 2010 Agency Agreement"; (4) claims such as fraudulent conduct and misrepresentation were not the types of illegal and outrageous acts that were considered unforeseeable to a reasonable consumer in the context of normal business dealings; and (5) Respondents did not waive their right to compel arbitration.
This Court has granted (1) a joint petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Petitioners (the Insureds and Agents), and (2) a separate petition filed by Laurie Williams (individually, Petitioner Williams).2
Whether an arbitration agreement may be enforced against a nonsignatory to the agreement is a matter subject to de novo review by an appellate court. See Aiken v. World Fin....
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