|
A party that signs only the front page of a two-sided agreement sent by fax does not assent to an arbitration clause located on the back page where the party seeking to enforce the arbitration agreement offers no evidence that the party agreed to the arbitration clause, a state court in North Carolina held.
In Evangelistic Outreach Center v. General Steel Corp., No. COA06-558, 2007 WL 505776 (N.C. Ct. App. Feb. 20, 2007), the parties disputed over payment for a prefabricated steel building that Evangelistic purchased from General Steel. When General Steel filed a motion to compel arbitration, Evangelistic argued that no arbitration agreement existed.
To prove the existence of an arbitration agreement, General Steel submitted a copy of the purchase order signed by Evangelistic. The purchase order stated that Evangelistic agreed to all terms and conditions, and Evangelistic did sign the one page agreement. General Steel had faxed the agreement to Evangelistic and claimed that its representative faxed both sides of the agreement, including the backside with the arbitration clause.
However, Evangelistic submitted a sworn affidavit from its minister, claiming that she had never seen a second page of the purchase order and did not enter into any contract that mentioned arbitration.
Since General Steel did not present any evidence to prove that Evangelistic had in fact received and agreed to the arbitration clause, the Court refused to grant the motion to compel arbitration because "the very existence of an arbitration agreement was lacking." The Court noted that General Steel could have proved the existence of the agreement with "a fax record, a conditions page signed and initialed by [Evangelistic], or a witness to negotiations between the parties about arbitration."
Subscribe to a free weekly update on ADR case law and
legislation
|