Brook v. Peak International, Ltd.

Brook (plaintiff/employee) had an employment contract with Peak International, Ltd. (Peak) (defendant) containing an arbitration clause specifying that the American Arbitration Association (AAA) would provide a list of nine potential arbitrators, with each side striking names down to one. After Brook was terminated and a severance dispute arose, the parties went to arbitration, but AAA repeatedly deviated from that contractual procedure — issuing a first list of nine, then (at the parties' request) a second list of six, and, after both a Professor Sokolow selection (which Peak protested and Brook didn't) was withdrawn, ultimately appointing Judge Chuck Miller. Brook objected on August 13, 1999 only that AAA hadn't followed its own general procedural rules — never citing the specific arbitrator-selection clause in his employment contract — and raised no objection when Judge Miller expressly asked before arbitration began whether either party objected to the process. Judge Miller ruled for Peak; only in a later district-court proceeding, after a magistrate judge raised the point, did Brook argue AAA's process violated his actual employment contract. The district court vacated the award on that basis, and Peak appealed.