Meierhenry Sargent LLP v. Williams, No. 17-3768 (8th Cir. 2019)
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In an action arising out of a fee dispute between a law firm and two clients, the action was removed to federal court and then the unpaid-fees claims proceeded to arbitration. The district court granted the firm relief from the stay and issued an order dividing the counterclaims into two categories: those the clients could raise in arbitration and those they could not.
Determining that it had jurisdiction, the Eighth Circuit held that the clients' counterclaims were within the scope of what the parties agreed to arbitrate and the counterclaims seeking something else -- like money from the firm -- were not. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's judgment, with one exception. The court held that the district court should not have decided that the clients terminated the relationship, because the arbitrator should decide the issue.
Court Description: Stras, Author, with Colloton and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Arbitration. Order dividing the defendants' counterclaims into arbitrable and non-arbitrable categories was appealable as it amounted to an injunction against arbitration of some of the counterclaims; the district court did not err in determining that counterclaims seeking to reduce or eliminate the fees defendants owed the firm were within the scope of the arbitration provision and that counterclaims seeking something else - such as money from the firm - were not; the court erred, however, in deciding that the defendants terminated the relationship as that issue should be left to the arbitrators to decide.
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