No Enforcement for an Old, Outmoded Arbitration Clause

With thanks for the cogent analysis by Steve Garmisa on an unusual issue, here’s the opening paragraph from a March 6, 2017 Chicago Daily law Bulletin article. It’s about a ruling on an unusual fact pattern involving an old, outmoded arbitration clause:

“With one justice dissenting, the Illinois Appellate Court ruled the arbitration rider in a 1999 contract between Rosemary Keefe and Allied Home Mortgage — which called for arbitration “governed by” Sections 1 through 4 of the Federal Arbitration Act and the National Arbitration Forum’s 1999 code — was unenforceable because: (1) the NAF stopped handling consumer cases in 2009; (2) there was an “implicit” agreement “to arbitrate their disputes exclusively before the NAF, governed by the 1999 version of the NAF code”; (3) the rider didn’t incorporate Section 5 of the FAA, which provides procedures for picking a substitute arbitrator; and (4) the defendants failed to provide the court with a copy of the 1999 NAF code. Keefe v. Allied Home Mortgage Corp., 2016 IL App (5th) 150360 (Nov. 28, 2016).”