Energy Transfer Can’t Force Arbitration in Wrongful Death Suit

US Supreme Court precedent addressing whether a federal arbitration carveout applies to airplane cargo loaders prohibits Energy Transfer LP from forcing the family of a deceased worker to arbitrate their wrongful death lawsuit, a Texas appellate panel said.

The energy giant can’t invoke the Federal Arbitration Act to compel arbitration of John Purland’s family’s lawsuit because he belonged to a class of transportation workers that engaged in interstate commerce and therefore exempt from the company’s mandatory arbitration clause in its employment contracts, a three-judge panel of the Texas Fourteenth District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

Purland worked as a pipeline ...