The Court Disapproved of Felisilda v. FCA US LLC (2020) To The Extent It Suggested Manufacturers Could Make Use Of Dealers' Arbitration Clauses.

        An issue knocking about in California Courts of Appeal has been whether Ford Motor Company and other automobile manufacturers could piggyback off arbitration clauses found in the contracts between dealerships and their customers. Ford has relied on an estoppel theory that sometimes arbitration can be compelled by a nonsignatory to the arbitration provision when claims are “intimately founded in and intertwined with” the sales contracts. While Ford wanted to drive the disputes to arbitration, the California Supreme Court took a different road. Ford Motor Warranty Cases, S279969 (Cal. Sup.Ct.  7/3/25) (Corrigan, author).

        The arbitration clauses only applied to the disputes between the buyers and the dealers. However, consumer claims against Ford rested on statutory obligations and fraud, not the sales contract.

        COMMENT: Given the existing paperwork, many Lemon Law cases will go to court.

 A Model T Ford that has "come to rest half on and half off a a streetcar boarding platform in Washington, D.C." 1922. Library of Congress.