Creasy v. Seelbach and Company, Inc., 3:17-cv-00742

Plaintiff Jimmy Creasy sued his former employer Seelbach and Company, Inc. for alleged FMLA interference and retaliation.
Defendant moved to dismiss or, alternatively, to stay proceedings and compel arbitration, citing a signed Application Acknowledgment and the employer’s Arbitration Policy requiring binding arbitration of employment disputes.
The Arbitration Policy and Plaintiff’s signed acknowledgment were submitted to the court; Plaintiff did not contest their validity or applicability.
The dispute over whether to compel arbitration is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), which creates a strong presumption in favor of enforcing arbitration agreements and requires stays of suits pending arbitration.
Sixth Circuit precedent requires a party opposing arbitration to show a genuine issue of material fact as to the agreement’s validity or applicability—akin to surviving summary judgment.
Because Creasy did not challenge the arbitration agreement, the court granted Defendant’s motion to stay the action and compel arbitration and administratively closed the file.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the FMLA claims must be submitted to arbitration	Creasy contends his complaint states viable FMLA claims and did not dispute the arbitration agreement’s applicability	Seelbach contends Creasy agreed to submit employment disputes to binding arbitration via the signed acknowledgment and arbitration policy	Court compelled arbitration—agreement enforceable and applicable because Creasy did not challenge it
Appropriate court remedy when arbitration applies (dismiss vs stay)	Creasy argued the court should consider Rule 12(b)(6) sufficiency of his complaint	Seelbach sought dismissal or, alternatively, a stay pending arbitration	Court stayed the action and compelled arbitration (stayed rather than dismissed)

Morrison v. Circuit City Stores, Inc., 317 F.3d 646 (6th Cir. 2003) (courts must enforce valid arbitration agreements and apply presumption in favor of arbitration)
Great Earth Cos., Inc. v. Simons, 288 F.3d 878 (6th Cir. 2002) (party opposing arbitration must show genuine issue of material fact on validity or applicability of arbitration agreement)