Gove v. Career Systems Development Corp.

The panel majority acknowledges that Gove’s application for employment at CSD contained a valid agreement to arbitrate. Nonetheless, it concludes that Gove is not required to take her claims to arbitration because principles of Maine contract law— specifically, the Maine Law Court’s fealty to the tenet of contra proferentem5 for adhesion contracts — require us to interpret any ambiguity in the scope of the agreement against the drafter (here, CSD). This it reasons, despite the otherwise broad federal principle that doubts about an arbitration clause’s scope should be resolved in favor of…