Citigroup Global Markets Inc. v. StoneMor Operating LLC (U.S. Supreme Court)

Section 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act prohibits courts from imposing prerequisites to enforcement of an arbitration agreement that are not applicable to contracts generally, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that arbitration agreements must stand on equal footing with all other agreements. The Indiana court in this case expressly—indeed, admittedly—applied an arbitration-specific limitation on the enforceability of contracts against nonsignatories. It held that a successor trustee was not bound by the arbitration agreement signed by one of its predecessor trustees, notwithstanding its acknowledgment of the general principle that successor trustees are bound by contractual obligations entered into by its predecessor trustees. On behalf of Smith Barney, we filed a petition for certiorari asking the Court to reaffirm Section 2’s core nondiscrimination principle.