Originally from:

Journal of American Arbitration (JAA) - Vol. 2, No. 2

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ARTICLES

The Fifth Circuit Follows the Court in Bazzle
and Holds that Arbitrators Decide Class
Action Issue in Pedcor Management Co.
Welfare Benefit Plan v. Nations Personnel of
Texas, Inc.
By Matthew Speicher

I. OVERVIEW
When an insurance company allegedly breached its reinsurance
contracts with Employer Self-Funded ERISA Plans (Plans), the
insurance company sued the third-party administrator of the Plans for
negligent underwriting.1 Many individual Plans then successfully
intervened as plaintiffs against the insurance company, North American
Indemnity, NV (NAI), “a Belgian-incorporated insurance company that
entered into reinsurance contracts with . . . Plans throughout the United
States.”2 The arbitration agreement in each of the reinsurance contracts
provided that “any dispute between the parties hereto in connection with
the Agreement” must be submitted to arbitration, but the agreement did
not expressly consider consolidation or class treatment of claims in