08-02-11 NAACP OF CAMDEN COUNTY EAST, ET AL. VS. FOULKE MANAGEMENT CORP.
A-1230-09T3
This appeal concerns the enforceability of arbitration provisions in various form documents that a consumer signed in connection with her purchase of a new motor vehicle from a New Jersey dealership. After disputing several charges that she had been billed, the consumer and a local chapter of the NAACP brought a class action, alleging that the dealership's practices violated numerous statutes and, in particular, that the arbitration provisions were unenforceable.
We affirm the trial court's specific ruling that the class action waiver provisions should not be invalidated on publicpolicy grounds, a conclusion in keeping with the United States Supreme Court's recent decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 563 U.S. ___, 131 S. Ct. 1740, 179 L. Ed. 2d 742 (2011). However, we also conclude that the disparate arbitration provisions here were too confusing, too vague, and too inconsistent to be enforced. We therefore reverse the trial court's dismissal of the complaint directing the parties to binding arbitration. We also vacate as premature the court's dismissal of the NAACP chapter for lack of standing.
