In a recent decision, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that under the Supremacy Clause, the Federal Arbitration Act and the FAA’s “national policy favoring arbitration,” a state court, including Oklahoma’s highest court, must defer to decisions of the highest court of this country on the subject of arbitration.
In Nitro-Lift Technologies, L.L.C. v. Howard, No. 11-1377, a dispute arose from an employment contract between Nitro-Lift and two former employees. The employees had entered a confidentiality and noncompetition agreement with Nitro-Lift which included an arbitration clause: “Any dispute, difference or unresolved question between Nitro-Lite and the Employee (collectively “Disputing Parties”) shall be settled by arbitration by a single arbitrator mutually agreeable to the Disputing Parties in an arbitration proceeding conducted in Houston, Texas, in accordance with the rules existing at the date hereof of the American Arbitration Association.”
