Halliburton/KBR Files Cert. in Jones v. Halliburton

Via On Point News, we learned that Halliburton/KBR has recently filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court on the case Jones v. Halliburton, 583 F.3d 228 (5th Cir. 2009). The issue is whether the arbitration provision in an employment contract includes the tort claim of sexual assault. The petition presents this question:

Respondent Jamie Leigh Jones filed a complaint in federal district court against her employer, seeking redress of injuries she allegedly sustained from a sexual assault by another employee in overseas employer-provided housing in which she was required to reside as a condition of her employment. Jones’s employment contract required arbitration of “any and all claims that you might have against Employer related to your employment,” including “any personal injury allegedly incurred in or about a Company workplace.” A divided United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit narrowly construed the arbitration clause to exclude Jones’s claim. The court reasoned that sexual assault claims should be deemed generally excluded from such clauses. It imported into the “related to” clause a requirement that the claim was only arbitrable if “significantly” related to employment, and rejected application of the general rule that overseas employer-provided sleeping quarters are part of the workplace. The question presented is:
Under the Federal Arbitration Act’s presumption of arbitrability, which requires courts to give arbitration agreements the broadest pro-arbitration construction of which they are susceptible, may a court develop rules of exclusion to narrow standard broad arbitration clauses?

See Professor Marcia L. McCormick from the Workplace Prof Blog for comments about this case. (post available here)

Related Posts:

• Employment Arbitration: Issues Implementing the ‘Franken Amendment’ (Feb. 2, 2010)
• U.S. Arbitration and Mediation Legislative Update (Jan. 25, 2010)
• Guest-Post Part II | Employment Arbitration: Short-Term Value but Long-Term Harm (Jan. 7, 2010)
• Guest-Post Part I | Employment Arbitration: Short-Term Value but Long-Term Harm (Jan. 6, 2010)
• 2009 Developments: Consumer and Employment Arbitration (Dec. 23, 2009)
• Defense Contractor Mandatory Arbitration Passes Senate (Oct. 13, 2009)
• Jones v. Halliburton: Fifth Circuit Rules on Arbitration of Tort Claims by an Employee (Sept. 18, 2009)
• Employment and Consumer Arbitration: NPR Article (June 10, 2009)

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