Brayman Construction Corp. v. The Home Insurance Co. et al.

Brayman Construction Corp. v. The Home Insurance Co. et al.

Lawrence Greengrass, Emilie Bakal and Daniel Endick, on behalf of The Home Insurance Co. and Zurich North America Insurance Company, recently obtained in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit a reversal of a district court order denying The Home's motion to compel arbitration. This case involves a workers' compensation insurance policy issued by The Home to Brayman and an ancillary retrospective premium agreement containing a broad arbitration clause. After the Home demanded arbitration based on Brayman's refusal to pay the outstanding amount of premium, Brayman responded by filing a "bad faith" lawsuit against The Home in federal court. The Home subsequently filed a motion to compel arbitration, arguing that Brayman's complaint was simply a defense to The Home's premium collection efforts, and fell squarely under the arbitration clause in the premium agreement. The Third Circuit agreed and reversed the district court's denial of The Home's motion, holding that "[i]n light of the breadth of the arbitration provision at issue here, as well as the federal policy counseling that doubts should be construed in favor of arbitration, the District Court should have held this dispute arbitrable."