John Wiley & Sons v. Livingston

In John Wiley & Sons v. Livingston (1964) 376 U.S. 543, an action to compel arbitration, the issue was whether a duty to arbitrate under a collective bargaining agreement survived the merger of the contracting employer with another corporation. The United States Supreme Court said: "The threshold question in this controversy is who shall decide whether the arbitration provisions of the collective bargaining agreement survived the Wiley-Interscience merger, so as to be operative against Wiley. Both parties urge that this question is for the courts. Past cases leave no doubt that this is correct. Fn. omitted. 'Under our decisions, whether or not the company was bound to arbitrate, as well as what issues it must arbitrate, is a matter to be determined by the Court on the basis of the contract entered into by the parties." " ( Id., at pp. 546-547.)