McGee v. Armstrong, 5:11-cv-02751

Background

McGee, an employee who served in the Ohio Army National Guard, sued Summit County DD Board for wrongful termination, contract breaches, and military-status discrimination/retaliation.
District Court (July 3, 2014) granted defendants’ motion to compel arbitration for most claims, carving out two breach-of-contract claims related to military leave pay and pay differential.
Case was stayed and administratively closed pending arbitration; McGee appealed that order but the Sixth Circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because the case was stayed, not dismissed.
Arbitrator ruled (Mar. 9, 2016) that the contested claims were arbitrable and later (Jan. 25, 2017) granted summary judgment for defendants on all arbitrable claims.
McGee moved to reopen the case and asked the court to (1) reconsider/vacate the July 3, 2014 MOO, (2) vacate the arbitrator’s decisions, and (3) reopen the case to litigate all claims or, alternatively, the two claims retained by the court.
The court denied reconsideration and denied vacatur of the arbitration awards but reopened the case solely to allow adjudication of the two retained breach-of-contract claims.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the July 3, 2014 order compelling arbitration should be reconsidered or vacated	McGee reargues that the arbitration clause was wrongly applied, unconscionable, and arbitrability should have been decided by the court	Defendants contend prior rulings stand; unconscionability was waived by untimely raising it	Denied — McGee failed to timely or persuasively show error; motion to reconsider untimely and reargument improper
Whether the arbitrator’s rulings (arbitrability and grant of summary judgment) should be vacated	Arbitrator disregarded controlling precedent, refused to consider material evidence, and manifestly disregarded law	Defendants provided arbitrator’s orders and contend McGee offers no record support for vacatur	Denied — vacatur standards are narrow; McGee provided no administrative record and did not meet statutory grounds for vacatur
Whether unconscionability of arbitration clause excuses arbitration	McGee claims unconscionability of clause (raised in objections) invalidates arbitration	Defendants argue the unconscionability argument was waived because not timely raised before the magistrate	Denied — court enforces waiver rule; unconscionability was not timely raised pre-R&R
Whether the case should be reopened and for what claims	McGee seeks full reopening to litigate all claims or at least the two claims previously retained	Defendants opposed reopening beyond the two retained claims	Granted in part — case reopened only for the two breach-of-contract claims retained by the court (military leave pay/pay differential)

Key Cases Cited

Way Bakery v. Truck Drivers Local No. 164, 363 F.3d 590 (6th Cir. 2004) (arbitral-review standard is extremely deferential)
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith v. Jaros, 70 F.3d 418 (6th Cir. 1995) (any legally plausible line of argument supporting an award requires confirmation)
Stout v. J.D. Byrider, 228 F.3d 709 (6th Cir. 2000) (framework for analyzing arbitrability under FAA principles)
Samaan v. Gen. Dynamics Land Sys., Inc., 835 F.3d 593 (6th Cir. 2016) (discussing openness of manifest-disregard doctrine post-Hall Street)
Hall St. Assoc., L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc., 552 U.S. 576 (2008) (addressing limits on judicially created grounds for vacating arbitration awards)