A monastery hired Cochran Plastering to repair chapel plaster work. When a dispute arose over damaged paintings, the Sisters tried to force arbitration using an arbitration clause in their contract. Cochran went to court to stop the arbitration. Alabama's Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act doesn't apply to this local work because it didn't substantially affect interstate commerce, so the arbitration clause was void and the case had to go to regular court instead.
Arbitration clauses may not be enforceable for purely local construction work that doesn't cross state lines or affect interstate commerce, even if the contract says disputes must be arbitrated.