Texas Distributors File New Petition

Distributors who filed massive lawsuits in Texas, only to be stymied by Amway's attempts to enforce its arbitration agreements retroactively, have filed a new petition. The petition is joined by plaintiffs in the Morrison suit, the Musgrove suit, and the Griffith suit. The petition challenges the court's previous decisions, claiming that the court improperly attempted to enforce Amway's arbitration agreement retroactively, thus denying them their legal rights.

The Petition for Writ of Mandamus reasserts that there was no governing contractual arbitration agreement between the plaintiffs in the above-mentioned suits --referred to as the Relators -- and Amway, since the areas of dispute occurred before the arbitration agreement was created, and since most of the plaintiffs had never signed the agreement. Even for those few who had signed the agreement, the court cannot impose such an greement retroactively.

The Petition also points out the inconsistency between Amway's behavior and its written policies:

"A substantial portion to Relators' lawsuits asserts that Dexter Yager, his companies and others within his organization acted in concert with other defendants (including Amway) to destroy Relators' business by discontinuing Relators access to BSMs. In the 1998 renewal form sent to distributors that included the arbitration provision, Amway had a separate section relating to BSMs which contains the following pronouncement:

"6. Offered independently of Amway Corporation. Independently produced Business Support Materials are offered independently of Amway Corporation and have not been endorsed or approved by Amway Corporation. Business Support Materials should be clearly labeled to show they do not come from Amway. Distributors who choose to sell Business Support Materials must make it clear to their customers that such materials are produced and sold independently of Amway.

"The Real Parties argue that because Relators cast their claims in terms of the effect on their Amway business, Relators' claims "aris[e] out of or relat[e] to [their] Amway distributorship, the Amway Sales and Marketing Plan, or the Amway Rules of Conduct" and thus, are within the scope of the arbitration agreement.

"A substantial amount of this lawsuit is between parties that are not in privity to the purported arbitration agreement. In particular, many of the Relators who intervened in the underlying suit against Dexter Yager and his company relating to BSMs had no agreement to arbitrate at all with Yager or those connected to him. In the underlying suit, Amway disclaims responsibility for the conduct of Yager and his company relating to BSMs, yet it seeks to invoke the arbitration agreement. Amway cannot have it both ways. It cannot claim that it has no liability for claims in connection with BSMs and at the same time assert that those claims are subject to arbitration. Accordingly, the Respondent clearly abused his discretion in ordering arbitration of these claims."

The Petition concludes with this request to the Court:

"WHEREFORE, premises considered, Relators respectfully request this Court to issue a writ of mandamus directing Respondent, the Honorable Pat Mizell, to vacate his order abating and staying the Relators' claims pending arbitration."

A Writ of Mandamus is supposed to be a legal vehicle for speedy redress of wrongs.