Holdings JJJ, LLC v. Jamie Rand and Julie Rand, as Trustees of the JLR Family Trust dated July 23, 2007; and Robert James and Lucilene James
The Second District held that the trial court was right to decide arbitrability itself but wrong about scope. Holdings JJJ invited any error on delegation: it relied only on the AAA Consumer Rules, which by their own terms exclude real estate purchase-and-sale agreements. On scope, a clause covering disputes 'arising out of the transaction, sale, contract, or closing' reached both the declaratory claim over the corrective deed and the fraudulent-concealment claim, so the court reversed and remanded for the trial court to decide waiver.
Key facts
- In 2019 the Jameses bought residential property from Holdings JJJ under an As-Is Residential Contract. The contract required mandatory binding arbitration of 'any dispute arising out of the transaction, sale, contract, or closing' under 'the arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association,' without naming a specific set of AAA rules.
- The deed misdescribed an easement over neighboring land owned by the JLR Family Trust. Holdings JJJ allegedly found the error just before closing and recorded a corrective deed. A managing member of Holdings JJJ is also a co-trustee of the Trust.
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Holdings
- A general reference to 'the arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association,' without naming a practice-area rule set that expressly delegates arbitrability, may not clearly and…
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Why it matters
This is one of the first Florida district court opinions after Airbnb v. Doe to hold that a generic 'AAA rules' reference, with no rule set named, may not delegate arbitrability to the arbitrator. That keeps the Fourth… — full analysis with a trial
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