Schneider Electric Buildings Critical Systems v. Western Surety (Ct. of Appeals)

Filed: July 28, 2017

Opinion by: Judge Adkins

Holding:

A surety company that guarantees performance of a construction subcontract with a performance bond is not bound by the subcontract’s mandatory arbitration clause when the subcontract is incorporated by reference into the bond and the clause refers only to the subcontract’s parties and the bond allows for dispute resolution in court.

Facts:

In May 2009, Plaintiff, a construction contractor, signed a Master Subcontract Agreement (“MSA”) with NCS, an electrical subcontractor, to cover future projects.  The MSA included a mandatory arbitration clause (the “Clause”).  In October 2009, Plaintiff was hired by another construction contractor to help build a medical research facility.  Plaintiff in turn hired NCS to help with the project.  Plaintiff and NCS signed a subcontract (“NCS Subcontract”) that incorporated the MSA by reference.  The NCS Subcontract required NCS to furnish a performance bond (“Bond”), which it obtained from Defendant.  The Bond made NCS and Defendant jointly and severally liable to Plaintiff for performance of the NCS Subcontract.

During construction, a dispute arose, NCS abandoned the site and Plaintiff terminated the contract.  In February 2014, Plaintiff filed a demand for arbitration with NCS.  In April 2014, Plaintiff amended the demand to include Defendant.  Defendant filed a petition in Howard County Circuit Court in which it requested a declaratory judgment that it was not bound by the Clause.

The case was transferred to a more proper venue, Harford County Circuit Court, which granted partial summary judgment for Defendant.  That court explained that the Bond is only insuring that Defendant is liable for any construction that has not been performed, and found no evidence of an intention that Defendant should be bound to dispute resolution provisions of the MSA.  

The Court of Special Appeals affirmed, holding that “the ‘joint and several’ obligation clause in the (Bond) does not evince (Defendant’s) assent to be bound by the (Clause) in the incorporated-by-reference chain of documents.”  Schneider Elec. Bldgs. Critical Sys., v. Western Sur. Co., 231 Md. App. 27, 46 (2016).  The Court of Appeals granted Plaintiff’s petition for a writ of certiorari.

Analysis:

The Court of Appeals applied Maryland contract law to determine if Defendant is bound by the Clause.  Precedent in Maryland requires courts to look at the intention of the parties as expressed in the language of the contracts.  The Court of Appeals explained in Hartford Accident & Indem. Co. v. Scarlett Harbor Assocs., 346 Md. 122, 127 (1997) that “arbitration is a process whereby parties voluntarily agree to substitute a private tribunal for the public tribunal otherwise available to them” and an arbitration clause “cannot impose obligations on persons who are not a party to it and do not agree to its terms.” 

The Court of Appeals interpreted the Bond by “constru(ing) (the Bond, NCS Subcontract, and MSA) as a whole…not (by) read(ing) each clause or provision (of each contract) separately.”  Owens-Illinois v. Cook, 386 Md. 468, 497 (2005).

Here, the Court of Appeals agreed with the lower courts because the Clause refers to the “parties” to the NCS Subcontract (which are Plaintiff and NCS) and the Bond permits court actions to resolve disputes between NCS and Defendant.  Since Defendant was not a “party” to the NCS Subcontract, the Clause does not apply to Defendant.  The Court of Appeals found support in its holding in Liberty Mutual Insurance v. Mandaree Public School District #36, 503 F.3d 709 (8th Cir. 2007), whose facts are similar to this case.

The full opinion is available PDF.