Corporate & Securities Law

The Limits of ?Relating To?

By Ken Adams

For all my dwelling on relating to, I haven’t considered at what point something might be too remote to a given circumstance to be related to it.

That, of course, is a fact-driven issue that isn’t susceptible to generalization. But it can be useful to consider examples, and Vickie Pynchon provides one in this post on her Settle It Now Negotiation Blog. It discusses the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ refusal to apply an arbitration provision to a sexual assault claim by a Halliburton employee. I’ll let you get the details from Vickie’s post, but here’s the essence:

We do not hold that, as a matter of law, sexual-assault allegations can never ?relate to? someone?s employment. For this action, however, Jones? allegations do not ?touch matters? related to her employment, let alone have a ?significant relationship? to her employment contract.

Full post as published by AdamsDrafting on September 17, 2009 (boomark / email).