GLEN A. NORTON, Judge.
Anheuser-Busch, Inc. ("A-B"), Terry Kaelin, Rick Marberry,
Plaintiffs sought employment with A-B which required them to complete an employment application containing the following language:
I acknowledge that no promise regarding employment has been made to me. Plaintiffs each completed and signed the employment application and were subsequently hired by A-B to be security guards. Plaintiffs were paid an hourly wage and were members of a union during their employment with A-B.
A-B's Dispute Resolution Program ("DRP") establishes a three-step process for resolving covered claims, consisting of local management review, mediation, and arbitration. Covered claims include claims that A-B may have against an employee relating to or arising out of the employment relationship and such claims an employee may have against A-B or any individual employee who is acting within the scope of his or her employment with A-B.
Plaintiffs filed a petition on March 3, 2010, and an amended petition on March 10, 2010, alleging Defendants discriminated against them in violation of the Missouri Human Rights Act. On February 7, 2011, Defendants filed a motion to compel arbitration, claiming Plaintiffs' employment applications constitute binding arbitration agreements in which Plaintiffs agreed to arbitrate any claims arising out of their employment with A-B in accordance with the DRP. The trial court denied Defendants' motion to compel arbitration finding that Plaintiffs never accepted an agreement to arbitrate, that the purported agreements are not supported by consideration, and that the DRP does not apply to Plaintiffs.
Whether a motion to compel arbitration should have been granted is a question of law that we review de novo. Katz v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 347 S.W.3d 533, 539 (Mo.App. E.D.2011).
In their second point on appeal, Defendants claim the trial court erred in denying their motion to compel arbitration because the trial court erroneously found that the purported arbitration agreements are not supported by consideration.
Nothing precludes parties from agreeing to arbitrate employment claims. Kunzie v. Jack-In-The-Box, Inc., 330 S.W.3d 476, 481 (Mo.App. E.D.2010).
First, Defendants claim that sufficient consideration exists in the form of A-B's willingness to consider Plaintiffs for employment. Although no Missouri case has discussed this issue, courts in other jurisdictions are split. Defendants urge us to follow the holding in Sheller by Sheller v. Frank's Nursery & Crafts, Inc., 957 F.Supp. 150 (N.D.Ill.1997). In Sheller, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found sufficient consideration for an arbitration agreement contained in an employment application. Id. at 154. The Court held that sufficient consideration existed because the employer "agreed to consider [p]laintiffs for employment if [p]laintiffs, upon employment, agreed to abide by company rules which included the arbitration of all claims." Id.
Plaintiffs cite to Geiger v. Ryan's Family Steak Houses, Inc. for the proposition that an employer's promise to consider an employment application is insufficient consideration for an applicant's agreement to arbitrate. 134 F.Supp.2d 985, 1001-02 (S.D.Ind.2001). The Geiger Court stated:
Id.
Second, Defendants argue that the alleged arbitration agreements are supported by sufficient consideration in
Defendants lastly claim that the alleged arbitration agreements are supported by sufficient consideration because the agreements contain mutual promises. Generally, "if a contract contains mutual promises, such that a legal duty or liability is imposed on each party as a promisor to the other party as a promisee, the contract is a bilateral contract supported by sufficient consideration." Frye, 321 S.W.3d at 438. However, the alleged arbitration agreements contain no promises made by Defendants. Instead, they include only the following promise made by each Plaintiff:
(emphasis added).
Because the alleged arbitration agreements are not supported by consideration, the trial court did not err in denying Defendants' motion to compel arbitration. Point two is denied.
The judgment denying Defendants' motion to compel arbitration is affirmed.
PATRICIA L. COHEN, P.J. and ROBERT M. CLAYTON III, J., concur.