A federal court in Missouri denied a defendant’s motion to compel arbitration. Two contracts were at issue. The first was a contract between the plaintiff, a pharmacy benefits manager, on the one hand, and a network of pharmacies – in which defendant, a chain of pharmacies in Oklahoma, participated – on the other. This contract governed the payment of pharmacy claims and did not include an arbitration provision. A separate contract directly between the plaintiff and defendant regarding claims audits contained an arbitration agreement. The plaintiff made claim for reimbursement for certain claims under the former agreement, and the defendant then initiated an arbitration in Missouri. The plaintiff resisted arbitration, and filed an action in court challenging arbitration on the grounds that the contract at issue contained no arbitration provision. The court agreed, noting that the evidence submitted made clear that the claims pertained only to the agreement with no arbitration agreement, and that therefore the claims could and should proceed in court. Express Scripts, Inc. v. The Apothecary Shoppe, Inc., No. 4:12-cv-01035 (USDC E.D. Mo. Sept. 30, 2013).
This post written by John Pitblado.
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