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A Florida appellate court has ruled that a trial court erred in requiring the party seeking arbitration, rather than the party bringing the claim, to pay the filing fee charged by the American Arbitration Association (AAA). As the Court noted, the AAA rules require “the party pursuing the claim” to pay the filing fee.
In ProSpec, L.L.C. v. Mazzei, No. 4D-07-364, 2007 WL 2481009 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Sept. 5, 2007), Mazzei hired ProSpec to perform a home inspection. The pre-inspection agreement provided for arbitration in accordance with the AAA rules.
Following the inspection, Mazzei sued ProSpec for breach of contract. In response, ProSpec filed a motion to compel arbitration. The trial court granted the motion but conditioned its order compelling arbitration on ProSpec’s payment of the AAA filing fee.
On appeal, the Court reversed the trial court’s ruling that ProSpec, as the party seeking arbitration, was required to pay the AAA filing fee. The Court held that Mazzei was obligated to pay the filing fee because the AAA rules require the filing fee to be paid by “the party pursuing the claim.”
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