On April 17, 2025, the First Department issued a decision in Soloway v. CIM Group, LLC, 2025 NY Slip Op. 02285, allowing a party that did not sign an agreement to arbitrate to enforce the arbitration provision, explaining:
Plaintiff is bound by the arbitration clause in the rental management agreement (RMA), which plaintiff entered into with the prior hotel manager (CPLR 7503[a]).
In an arbitration context, equitable estoppel allows a nonsignatory to a written agreement containing an arbitration clause to compel arbitration where a signatory to the written agreement must rely on the terms of that agreement in asserting its claims against the nonsignatory. Here, plaintiff’s claims are integrally related to the RMA, as they arise from the hotel’s rental program, which plaintiff entered into by signing the RMA. Although plaintiff purports to base his claims on an agency relationship or implied contract regarding the hotel’s rental program, the complaint acknowledges that 246 Spring Street claims to be acting under the RMA’s terms and alleges that 246 Spring Street is violating the spirit and terms of the RMA. Thus, the agency relationship underlying plaintiff’s claims exists only because 246 Spring Street undertook to perform under the RMA.
(Internal quotations and citations omitted).