Civil Procedure — arbitration

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Civil Procedure — arbitration

Fraud claims arising out of a contract are subject to the contract’s mandatory arbitration provision.

“His civil conspiracy claim is predicated on an alleged agreement between First Cellular and Alltel to unlawfully funnel First Cellular customers into service agreements with Alltel. His aiding and abetting claim is based on First Cellular assisting Alltel with this allegedly fraudulent scheme. And his unjust enrichment claim seeks disgorgement of the profits that First Cellular and Allltel reaped as a product of the fraud. All of these claims implicate the services and equipment that Gore, and other members of the putative class, received under the Alltel Agreement. Given our broad reading of ‘arising out of and relating to,’ we are confident that these claims also fall within the scope of the arbitration clause. Welborn Clinic v. MedQuist, Inc., 301 F.3d 634, 639 (7th Cir. 2002) (‘[W]e have naturally been willing to read these admittedly expansive clauses quite broadly to include all manner of claims tangentially related to the agreement, including claims of fraud, misrepresentation, and other torts . . . .’ (citing Kiefer, 174 F.3d at 909-10)).”

Reversed and Remanded.

11-2089 Gore v. Alltel Communications, LLC

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Herndon, J., Williams, J.