Sixth Circuit Holds Expired Contract's Arbitration Provision Enforceable

Is an arbitration clause enforceable if it is in an expired contract and the parties omitted it from the contract's survival clause? Yes, said the Sixth Circuit in Huffman v. The Hilltop Companies, noting "whether the strong presumption in favor of arbitration applies postexpiration when an arbitration clause is not listed in a survival clause appears to be one of first impression among the circuit courts."

Hoffman involved a putative class action by former independent contractors who alleged they were misclassified. The company moved to compel arbitration based on an arbitration provision in expired services agreements with each of the plaintiffs. The agreement contained a survival clause that listed half of the 24 provisions that would survive the expiration of the agreement, but  not the arbitration clause.