CitiFinancial, Inc. v. Brown

John Brown (defendant), a severely mentally disabled man with the mental capacity of a three-year-old who cannot read or write, and his mother Catherine (defendant) took out a debt-consolidation loan from CitiFinancial (plaintiff) containing an arbitration clause requiring both to sign. John later sued CitiFinancial in state court despite the clause; CitiFinancial petitioned federal court to compel arbitration and stay the state suit, arguing under Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin that any dispute over the validity of the arbitration agreement itself should go to the arbitrator, not the court.