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Paone v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc.

Denial of petition to compel arbitration vacated and remanded to give court a chance to determine whether there was a confidential relationship between the parties and, if so, whether the arbitration provision at issue was fair under the circumstances and was knowingly entered into.

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� 1 Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc. (“Dean Witter”) *fn1 appeals the order denying its petition to compel arbitration in this suit brought against it by Joseph R. Paone. We are called upon in this appeal to determine whether the rule articulated by our Supreme Court in Flightways Corp. v. Keystone Helicopter Corp., 459 Pa. 660, 331 A.2d 184 (1975) – that an arbitration provision is enforceable in an agreement alleged to have been induced by fraud unless the allegation of fraud goes specifically to the arbitration provision – applies where the agreement is alleged to have arisen out of a confidential relationship. Upon review we vacate and remand.

� 2 On June 13, 1996, Paone’s mother died. Paone was 45 and had lived alone with his mother all of his life. The farthest he had ever traveled out of his hometown of Archbald, Pennsylvania was to Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania in 1969, a distance of about 25 miles.

� 3 Paone graduated high school after five years, with barely passing grades. With the exception of a minimum wage job at a cemetery from 1980 to 1990, he was unemployed for most of his life and was supported by his mother through her Army disability pension. His mother had handled all of his financial affairs. Until her death, he had never written a check.

 
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