The U.S. Supreme Court this morning declined to hear an appeal in an Oklahoma arbitration case on the so-called equal-footing principle—the idea that the Federal Arbitration Act prevents courts and legislatures from targeting rulings and laws to arbitration agreements, and instead requires  them to place arbitration on an equal footing with other contracts.

The Court denied cert on Tamko Building Products, Inc. v. Williams, Daniel, et al., No. 19-959 (case documents including party briefs available on Scotusblog at https://bit.ly/3dcPrn7).

The Oklahoma Supreme Court case declined to enforce an arbitration agreement between homeowners and shingle manufacturers where the arbitration agreement was “printed on shingle wrapping viewed only by contractors and then discarded.”

Tamko, a Galena, Kansas, building supply company, contended that the Oklahoma court’s decision violated the principle in the Supreme Court case of Kindred Nursing Ctrs. Ltd. P’ship v. Clark, 137 S. Ct. 1421 (2017) (available at https://bit.ly/2YvMji9), which held that the FAA couldn’t be held to higher standards than other contracts.

Tamko, according to its reply brief filed last month with the Court, contended that the Oklahoma Supreme Court “found an agency relationship that empowered contractors buying shingles to bind homeowners to the terms of sale concerning matters such as price and delivery, but not arbitration—because of the importance of the jury-trial right.”

But, it continued, “That decision blatantly violates the FAA’s equal-footing principle.”

As a result of the cert denial, the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision that the homeowners “never had an opportunity to make a knowing waiver of access to the courts,” stands, along with its reversal of a trial court order remanding the case for trial.