KOONS FORD OF BALTIMORE, INC. v. RAYMOND CALVIN LOBACH, ET AL., 398 Md. 38

Summary

The car buyer purchased a car from the car dealer and, after discovering defects in it, filed a complaint against car dealer alleging, inter alia, that the car dealer violated the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, 15 U.S.C.S. § 2301 et seq. (Act). The trial court denied the car dealer's petition for order to arbitrate as to the claim based on the Act. On appeal to the state's highest court, the car dealer contended that the claim had to be submitted to binding arbitration because the car buyer signed a buyer's order containing a binding arbitration clause. The car buyer argued that the Act prohibited the forced resolution of claims through binding arbitration. The state's highest court found that the United States Congress, in passing the Act, did not intend to allow binding arbitration when it enacted the Act since it expressed an intent to allow consumers to pursue remedies in court if informal dispute settlement procedures did not resolve the dispute, yet binding arbitration in recent ...