Joshua Kilgore, Appellant v. Robert Mullenax and Senior Dental Care, LLC, Appellees

Summary

The court held that the Federal Arbitration Act governed the parties’ arbitration because their businesses and activities involved interstate commerce, and the arbitrator’s jurisdictional determination was conclusive under the parties’ agreement. It further held that the FAA’s statutory grounds for vacatur are exclusive, so Arkansas public-policy protections for reports to the Insurance Department could not provide an additional basis to vacate the award. The court affirmed confirmation of the award and vacated the court of appeals’ opinion. Justice Hart, dissenting, would have vacated the award because the arbitrator allegedly ignored Arkansas’s public policy protecting whistleblowers.