GOPPERT v. NATIONAL INCOME LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY (2024)

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Lyle E. Frank, J.), entered January 12, 2024, which granted defendant's motion to stay the action and to compel arbitration, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The court properly compelled plaintiffs to submit their claims to arbitration.  “Arbitration is strongly favored under New York law” (State of New York v. Philip Morris Inc., 30 A.D.3d 26, 31, 813 N.Y.S.2d 71 [1st Dept. 2006], affd 8 N.Y.3d 574, 838 N.Y.S.2d 460, 869 N.E.2d 636 [2007]), and the broad arbitration clause in the agent contracts requires plaintiffs’ claims to be submitted to binding arbitration (see Tong v. S.A.C. Capital Mgt., LLC, 52 A.D.3d 386, 387, 860 N.Y.S.2d 84 [1st Dept. 2008]).  The reference in the agent contracts to the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) pertains solely to the grievance process outlined in that agreement, rather than to the scope of claims permitted under its arbitration clause.  The agent contracts do not provide for “total displacement of [the] arbitration clause by the arbitration clause of a CBA covering plaintiff,” and “[n]othing in the ․ contractual language can plausibly be construed to mean that a claim otherwise arbitrable” under the agent contracts “is not to be arbitrated at all if that claim would not fall within the scope of a narrower CBA arbitration clause” (Dibello v. Salkowitz, 4 A.D.3d 230, 231, 772 N.Y.S.2d 663 [1st Dept. 2004]).

We have considered plaintiff's remaining contentions and find them unavailing.