Varallo v. Elkins Park Hospital
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
We will dispense with a full recitation of the facts in this case, as we write primarily for the parties and the District Court who are familiar with them.
Suffice it to say, plaintiff Lee Varallo filed suit against Elkins Park Hospital and Tenet Healthcare Corporation (collectively, “the Hospital”) when, after she took Family and Medical leave following the birth of her child, her position was eliminated and the Hospital failed to rehire her into another position. Varallo alleged a failure to rehire, as well as wrongful termination in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e, et seq., the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (“PDA”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k), the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 (“FMLA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 2601, et seq., and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (“PHRA”), 42 P.S. §§ 951, et seq.
The Hospital filed a Motion to Dismiss or Stay Action and Compel Arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), 9 U.S.C. § 1, et seq, in light of a eoncededly broad and undisputedly valid arbitration agreement between Varallo and the Hospital.
The standard of review in a case that calls upon us to address ourselves to the applicability and scope of an arbitration agreement is plenary. See, e.g., Harris v. Green Tree Financial Corp., 183 F.3d 173, 176 (3d Cir. 1999). A motion to compel arbitration “should not be denied unless it may be said with positive assurance that the arbitration clause is not susceptible of an interpretation that covers the asserted dispute.” Medtronic Ave, Inc. v. Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., 247 F.3d 44, 55 (3d Cir. 2001) (internal quotations omitted). This is so because the legislative goal of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) was ostensibly to “reverse the longstanding judicial hostility to arbitration agreements that had existed at English common law and had been adopted by American courts, and to place arbitration agreements upon the same footing as other contracts.” Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp., 500 U.S. 20, 24, 111 S.Ct. 1647, 114 L.Ed.2d 26 (1991).
When determining whether a given claim falls within the scope of an arbitration agreement, a court must “focus on the factual allegations in the complaint rather than the legal causes of action asserted.” Genesco, Inc. v. T. Kakiuchi & Co., 815 F.2d 840, 846 (2d Cir. 1987). “If these factual allegations ‘touch matters’ covered by the parties’ contract, then those claims must be arbitrated, whatever the legal labels attached to them.” Id. (citing Mitsubishi Motors Corp. v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc., 473 U.S. 614, 624-25 n. 13, 105 S.Ct. 3346, 87 L.Ed.2d 444 (1985)). Moreover, “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 a like defense to arbitrability.” Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital v. Mercury Construction Corp., 460 U.S. 1, 24-25, 103 S.Ct. 927, 74 L.Ed.2d 765 (1983).
The District Court essentially found that the date of termination was, without more,
Furthermore, the alleged severability and distinctiveness of the failure to rehire claim from the wrongful termination claims are undercut by the fact, and fact it be, that only a job application of a former Hospital employee could accurately be termed an application for “Re hire” or “Re instatement” which, of course, are subjects explicitly covered by the arbitration agreement. It goes without saying that an applicant with no employment history with the Hospital would, by definition, have no claim whose factual premise could be anchored to anything that occurred during a previous employment.
For the aforementioned reasons, we conclude that all of Varallo’s claims were covered by the arbitration agreement.
. It is undisputed that Varallo’s employment was governed by the Hospital's Fair Treatment Process (“FTP”), and that she signed a valid "Employee Acknowledgment Form,” which obligated her "to submit to final and binding arbitration any and all claims and disputes that are related in any way to [her] employment or the termination of [her] employment with Tenet.” (App. at 33). Varallo further acknowledged "that final and binding arbitration will be the sole and exclusive remedy for any such claim or dispute against
. We note, moreover, that even if the failure to rehire claim had not fallen under the arbitration agreement, the District Court should have ordered the arbitrable claims to go forward before an arbitrator. See Dean Witter v. Byrd, 470 U.S. 213, 221, 105 S.Ct. 1238, 84 L.Ed.2d 158 (1985).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Lee A. VARALLO v. ELKINS PARK HOSPITAL Tenet Healthcare Corporation
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published