[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1314 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1314

To amend chapter 1 of title 9 of the United States Code to permit each 
 party to a sales and service contract to accept or reject arbitration 
          as a means of settling disputes under the contract.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 11, 1993

  Mr. Bryant introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend chapter 1 of title 9 of the United States Code to permit each 
 party to a sales and service contract to accept or reject arbitration 
          as a means of settling disputes under the contract.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This title may be cited as the ``Voluntary Arbitration Act of 
1993''.

SEC. 2. ELECTION OF ARBITRATION.

    (a) Sales and Service Contracts.--Chapter 1 of title 9 of the 
United States Code is amended by adding at the end thereof the 
following new section:
``Sec. 17. Sales and service contracts
    ``(a) Whenever a sales and service contract provides for the use of 
arbitration to resolve a controversy arising out of or relating to the 
contract, each party to the contract shall have the option, after the 
controversy arises and before both parties commence an arbitration 
proceeding, to reject arbitration as the means of settling the 
controversy. Any such rejection shall be in writing.
    ``(b) In making an award in any controversy arising out of or 
relating to a sales and service contract, the arbitrator shall provide 
the parties to the contract with a written explanation of the factual 
and legal basis for the award and any such award may be vacated by a 
court order as provided in section 10 or whenever the court referred to 
in section 10 finds that the arbitrator disregarded the law of the 
State or jurisdiction in which the retailer's facilities are located.
    ``(c) For purposes of this section--
            (1) the term `sales and service contract' means a contract 
        under which any person (including any manufacturer, importer, 
        or distributor) sells any product to any other person for 
        resale to an ultimate purchaser and authorizes such other 
        person to repair and service such product, and
            (2) the term `retailer' means any person authorized to 
        resell any product to an ultimate purchaser and to repair and 
        service such product under a sales and service contract.''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for chapter 1 of 
title 9, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end thereof 
the following new item:

``17. Sales and service contracts.''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by section 1 shall apply to contracts entered 
into, amended, altered, modified, renewed, or extended after the date 
of the enactment of this Act.

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