Supreme Court of the United States
Granite Rock Company v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters
June 24, 2010177 L. Ed. 2d 567
Summary
The Court held that the dispute over the collective-bargaining agreement's ratification date is for judicial resolution, not arbitration, because arbitration is a matter of consent and the date determines if the agreement existed at the time of the dispute. It also declined to recognize a new federal common-law tort cause of action under § 301(a) for interference with the CBA. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Stevens, concurred in part and dissented in part, arguing the CBA's retroactive effective date made the dispute arbitrable.