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A U.S. District Court in Mississippi held that an unsigned arbitration agreement is valid when the party contesting arbitration does not object to the arbitration agreement and enforces other terms of the contract.
In Mississippi Valley Title Ins. Co. v. Lewis, No. CIV.A. 4:06CV79LS, 2006 WL 3694603 (S.D. Miss. Dec. 13, 2006), Lewis filed suit against MVTIC over his attempted sale of real property. The sale fell through due to a lien, which was undiscovered by a MVTIC attorney in preparing the title insurance policy.
MVTIC moved to compel arbitration and Lewis did not respond. The motion was granted. Lewis subsequently filed a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. MVTIC moved to strike Lewis' motion as untimely. Lewis then moved to set aside the order which compelled him to arbitrate, claiming there was no signed arbitration agreement.
The Court was not persuaded by Lewis' argument that he was not subject to arbitration because he hadn't signed the agreement. Lewis had the contract containing the arbitration agreement in his possession for years, with no objection to its terms. Under the theory of equitable estoppel, Lewis was bound by the arbitration agreement because he had enforced other terms of the contract. The Court denied Lewis's motion to set aside the court's order compelling arbitration and granted MVTIC's motion to strike Lewis's motion to dismiss as untimely.
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