Pot Shop’s Arbitration Agreement Puzzles Massachusetts Court

A medical cannabis dispensary trying to enforce an arbitration clause faced a tough panel of Massachusetts Appeals Court judges, who appeared to disagree that federal law preempts state precedent about how clear those agreements must be.

Mayflower Medicinals Inc. told the panel of judges that the Federal Arbitration Act makes irrelevant the state’s Supreme Judicial Court precedent on how clear an agreement must be that about asking employees to waive their rights to bring a discrimination claim.

“No other court has actually held that, right?” Justice Robert Toone asked Kathleen White, an associate at Jackson Lewis PC representing Mayflower, during ...