Green Tree Financial Corp., Nka Conseco Finance Corp. v. Bazzle, in a Representative Capacity on Behalf of A…

Summary

The Court vacated the South Carolina Supreme Court's judgment and remanded. Justice Breyer's plurality, joined by Justices Scalia, Souter, and Ginsburg, reasoned that whether these broadly worded arbitration agreements prohibited class arbitration was a question of contract interpretation for the arbitrator, not the courts. The plurality concluded that the existing arbitration decisions likely reflected judicial interpretations rather than independent arbitral determinations. Justice Stevens, concurring in the judgment and dissenting in part, preferred affirmance because he considered the state court's decision permissible under the Federal Arbitration Act, but supplied the fifth vote for remand to produce a controlling judgment. Chief Justice Rehnquist, joined by Justices O'Connor and Kennedy, dissented, reasoning that courts should decide the question and that class arbitration contradicted the contractual arbitrator-selection provisions. Justice Thomas separately dissented because he believed the Federal Arbitration Act did not apply in state courts.