82
Opinion of the Court
The agreement also provides that Howsam can select the arbitration forum. And Howsam chose arbitration before the NASD.
To obtain NASD arbitration, Howsam signed the NASD's Uniform Submission Agreement. That agreement specified that the "present matter in controversy" was submitted for arbitration "in accordance with" the NASD's "Code of Arbitration Procedure." Id., at 24. And that Code contains the provision at issue here, a provision stating that no dispute "shall be eligible for submission . . . where six (6) years have elapsed from the occurrence or event giving rise to the . . . dispute." NASD Code § 10304.
After the Uniform Submission Agreement was executed, Dean Witter filed this lawsuit in Federal District Court. It asked the court to declare that the dispute was "ineligible for arbitration" because it was more than six years old. App. 45. And it sought an injunction that would prohibit Howsam from proceeding in arbitration. The District Court dismissed the action on the ground that the NASD arbitrator, not the court, should interpret and apply the NASD rule. The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, however, reversed. 261 F. 3d 956 (2001). In its view, application of the NASD rule presented a question of the underlying dispute's "arbitrability"; and the presumption is that a court, not an arbitrator, will ordinarily decide an "arbitrability" question. See, e. g., First Options of Chicago, Inc. v. Kaplan, 514 U. S. 938 (1995).
The Courts of Appeals have reached different conclusions about whether a court or an arbitrator primarily should interpret and apply this particular NASD rule. Compare, e. g., 261 F. 3d 956 (CA10 2001) (case below) (holding that the question is for the court); J. E. Liss & Co. v. Levin, 201 F. 3d 848, 851 (CA7 2000) (same), with PaineWebber Inc. v. Elahi, 87 F. 3d 589 (CA1 1996) (holding that NASD § 15, currently § 10304, is presumptively for the arbitrator); Smith Barney Shearson, Inc. v. Boone, 47 F. 3d 750 (CA5 1995) (same). We
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007