Reyes v. Claria Life & Health Insurance Co., 190 So. 3d 154

Plaintiff Jose Manuel Reyes, a Guatemalan resident, held an international health insurance Certificate issued by Claria (a Delaware insurer) covering treatment at U.S. hospitals and underwent a multi-organ transplant at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Reyes sued Claria, Global Assurance Group, Inc., and Dr. Arturo Guerra asserting claims including insurance fraud, fraud in the inducement, breach of the Certificate (including bad faith), breach of managed-care agreements as a third-party beneficiary, and fraudulent conveyance.
The Certificate contained Section 6.5: a Delaware arbitration clause requiring three arbitrators and stating arbitration will occur in Delaware unless agreed otherwise; it also contained a mandatory forum-selection clause giving Delaware exclusive jurisdiction "for determination of any legal right under this Certificate" and a waiver of jury trial.
Defendants moved to dismiss for improper venue and to compel arbitration based on Section 6.5; the trial court dismissed the action for lack of jurisdiction (finding Delaware exclusive) and also compelled arbitration.
On appeal the court reviewed both the forum-selection clause and the motion to compel arbitration de novo, affirmed dismissal based on the mandatory Delaware forum-selection clause, but reversed the portion of the order that compelled arbitration because arbitration-related relief must be sought in the agreed forum (Delaware).

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Validity/enforceability of forum-selection clause	Clause, combined with arbitration clause, is ambiguous/contradictory so should not be enforced	Clause is clear and mandatory: Delaware has exclusive jurisdiction for any legal right under the Certificate	Forum-selection clause is valid and enforceable; Delaware is exclusive forum; dismissal was proper
Scope of forum clause as to non-signatories	Clause should apply only to insurer Claria, not to Global or Guerra	Clause applies to non-signatories because claims arise from the agreement and parties’ commercial relationship	Clause applies to all defendants; non-signatories bound due to close connection to the agreement
Whether trial court could decide arbitration merits while dismissing for forum	Arbitration clause enforcement may be litigated in Florida	Once Delaware is chosen as exclusive forum, arbitration issues should be decided in Delaware	Trial court erred in compelling arbitration; arbitration must be addressed in Delaware
Applicability of Florida insurance statutes to arbitration enforcement	Florida Insurance Code §624.155 affects arbitration enforceability	Enforcement of arbitration clause is contractual and governed by agreement (but merits not reached)	Court did not decide; argument rejected for present appeal because arbitration merits were remanded to Delaware

Espresso Disposition Corp. v. Santana Sales & Mktg. Grp., Inc., 105 So. 3d 592 (Fla. 3d DCA) (contracts/forum-selection interpretation reviewed de novo)
Roth v. Cohen, 941 So. 2d 496 (Fla. 3d DCA) (arbitration-order review de novo)
Manrique v. Fabbri, 493 So. 2d 437 (Fla.) (forum-selection clauses enforced absent unreasonableness)
Am. Online, Inc. v. Booker, 781 So. 2d 423 (Fla. 3d DCA) (parties may contractually select forum)
Corsec, S.L. v. VMC Int’l Franchising, LLC, 909 So. 2d 945 (Fla. 3d DCA) (forum-selection clauses presumptively valid)
Seifert v. U.S. Home Corp., 750 So. 2d 633 (Fla.) (court may decide existence/validity of arbitration agreements)
Gen. Impact Glass & Windows Corp. v. Rollac Shutter of Texas, Inc., 8 So. 3d 1165 (Fla. 3d DCA) (arbitration waiver and threshold issues may be litigated)
Taurus Stornoway Inv., LLC v. Kerley, 38 So. 3d 840 (Fla. 1st DCA) (dismissal warranted where forum-selection clauses mandate another forum)
World Vacation Travel, S.A., de C.V. v. Brooker, 799 So. 2d 410 (Fla. 3d DCA) (mandatory forum clauses apply to non-signatories when claims arise from the agreement)