MELISSA KNIGHT VS. VIVINT SOLAR DEVELOPER, LLC, ET AL. (L-2852-18, CAMDEN COUNTY AND STATEWIDE) (A-2258-19T3)
At issue on this appeal is the validity of an arbitration provision contained within a purported agreement between a consumer and a solar energy company. Plaintiff consumer acknowledges she memorialized her understanding of the overall agreement by affixing her signature to the signature line of an otherwise blank iPad screen, displayed to her by defendant salesperson. Plaintiff maintains, however, that she did not check any boxes on the iPad screen that would otherwise indicate her assent to arbitration.
Relying on our Supreme Court's then-recent decision in Goffe v. Foulke Management Corporation, 238 N.J. 191 (2019), the trial judge granted defendants' motion to compel arbitration and stay plaintiff's Law Division action. In doing so, the trial judge determined the arbitrator must decide threshold issues concerning the overall validity of the parties' purported written agreement, which contained the arbitration provision.
The court disagrees, concluding there exist questions of fact concerning the mutuality of assent to the arbitration provision, which is necessary to bind both parties to arbitration, thereby distinguishing this matter from Goffe. Because it is unclear from the record whether plaintiff agreed to arbitrate disputes under the agreement, the court vacates the trial court's order and remands for a plenary hearing for the judge to first make that threshold determination.
