Dudley, Hopton-Jones, Sims & Freeman, Pllp v. Andrew J. Knight

Summary

The court held that the circuit court exceeded its authority by dismissing DHSF's claims based on statute-of-limitations, compulsory-counterclaim, and pleading-particularity defenses after compelling arbitration. Those defenses concern the ultimate viability of the claims and must be decided in arbitration, while the asserted waiver based on delay was not the type of litigation-conduct waiver that a court could decide. The dismissal was reversed and the case remanded for arbitration. Chief Justice Cobb, dissenting, would have affirmed because the circuit court was better positioned to decide whether DHSF waived arbitration through its eight-year delay, while Justice Murdock concurred in the result but provided a narrower explanation of procedural arbitrability.