Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. v. Byrd

Decided March 4, 1985. Thurgood Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 83-1708 · 470 U.S. 213 (1985) · Cited 2,684 times

Holding

The District Court erred in refusing to grant petitioner's motion to compel arbitration of the state claims.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Wilko v. Swan · 346 U.S. 427 (1953)
• McDonald v. City of West Branch · 466 U.S. 284 (1984)
• Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital v. Mercury Construction Corp. · 460 U.S. 1 (1983)
• Scherk v. Alberto-Culver Co. · 417 U.S. 506 (1974)
• Herman & MacLean v. Huddleston · 459 U.S. 375 (1983)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Shearson/American Express Inc. v. McMahon · 482 U.S. 220 (1987)
• Hall Street Associates, L. L. C. v. Mattel, Inc. · 552 U.S. 576 (2008)
• Volt Info. Sciences, Inc. v. Bd. of Trustees of Leland Stanford Jr. U. · 489 U.S. 468 (1989)
• Kpmg LLP v. Cocchi · 565 U.S. 18 (2011)
• Perry v. Thomas · 482 U.S. 483 (1987)
• Mitsubishi Motors Corp. v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc. · 473 U.S. 614 (1985)
• American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant · 570 U.S. 228 (2013)
• First Options of Chicago, Inc. v. Kaplan · 514 U.S. 938 (1995)
• Allied-Bruce Terminix Cos., Inc. v. Dobson · 513 U.S. 265 (1995)
• Vaden v. Discover Bank · 556 U.S. 49 (2009)
• Morgan v. Sundance, Inc. · 596 U.S. 411 (2022)
• Compucredit Corp. v. Greenwood · 565 U.S. 95 (2012)
• Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp. · 500 U.S. 20 (1991)
• Rodriguez De Quijas v. Shearson/American Express, Inc. · 490 U.S. 477 (1989)
• Mastrobuono v. Shearson Lehman Hutton, Inc. · 514 U.S. 52 (1995)
• Green Tree Financial Corp. v. Bazzle · 539 U.S. 444 (2003)
• Marmet Health Care Center, Inc. v. Brown · 565 U.S. 530 (2012)
• Smith v. Spizzirri · 601 U.S. 472 (2024)
• Badgerow v. Walters · 596 U.S. 1 (2022)
• Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana · 596 U.S. 639 (2022)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1985). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).