ARBITRATION-EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT

Abdurahman v. Prospect CCMC LLC, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 20823 (3^rd Cir. July 28, 2022) (Matey, C.J.)  A company cannot benefit by an employment arbitration agreement based upon agency principles and equitable estoppel.  Arbitration can only be asserted by the company with whom the employee signed the agreement.  Pennsylvania laws apply to the threshold questions.  A non-signatory may not embrace some contractual terms while denying others, such as an arbitration clause.  There is nothing in the contract at issue to estop the plaintiff from repudiating.  A sibling corporate relationship without more cannot establish the “obviously close nexus” necessary to invoke estoppel.  There are two contracts with two sets of signatories, and both can be performed without conflict or inequity.  The claim against the one party, further, is outside the arbitration agreement.