The in-house legal counsel for a corporation, like all top members of management, signed an employment contract when he came to work for the company. The contract stated, among other things, that any disputes arising under the contract would be submitted to binding arbitration. Some time later, when the attorney’s employment was terminated, he sought to institute a breach of contract claim in state court. The company moved to have the case dismissed on the basis of the provision in the contract that all disputes would be submitted to a private arbitrator.

The attorney countered that since his cause of action was for a material breach of the contract, and that a material breach of the contract rendered it null and void, he had no obligation to abide by the arbitration clause and subject himself to binding arbitration. Is he right? What public policy considerations should the court take into account in deciding this issue? See Burkhart v. Semitool, Inc.

[5 P.3d 1031 (Montana Supreme 2000)].