In re Golden Peanut Company, LLC

The decedent in this wrongful death suit was a party to an employee benefit plan that contained an agreement to arbitrate any personal injury or wrongful death claims against his employer, a nonsubscriber to workers compensation insurance. The trial court denied the employers motion to compel arbitration of the family members claims, and the court of appeals denied mandamus relief, concluding that the wrongful death beneficiaries did not sign the arbitration agreement and were not bound by it. 269 S.W.3d 302. Given our subsequent holding in In re Labatt Food Service, L.P., 279 S.W.3d 640 (Tex. 2009), however, the wrongful death beneficiaries, as derivative claimants, are bound by the decedents agreement to arbitrate. Moreover, Texas Labor Code section 406.033(e), which prohibits pre-injury waivers of personal injury or death claims, does not invalidate the decedents arbitration agreement. Accordingly, we conditionally grant the petition for writ of mandamus.