Everything I read points to this:
Supreme Court of the United States in Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co., 388 U.S. 395, 87 S.Ct. 1801, 18 L.Ed.2d 1270 (1967). Under the doctrine of separability, the arbitration clause is considered to be an agreement independent and separate from the principal contract. M. Domke, Law and Practice of Commercial Arbitration § 8:01 (1980). In Prima Paint the Supreme Court explained the doctrine as follows:
... except where the parties otherwise intend — arbitration clauses as a matter of federal law are "separable" from the contracts in which they are embedded, and ... where no claim is made that fraud was directed to the arbitration clause itself, a broad arbitration clause will be held to encompass arbitration of the claim that the contract itself was induced by fraud.
388 U.S. at 402, 87 S.Ct. at 1805 (second emphasis added).
The Prima Paint court construed a provision of the Federal Arbitration Act as requiring adoption of the separability doctrine. Section 4 of that Act, very similar in purpose to A.R.S. § 12-1502, provides that a federal court must order arbitration to proceed once it is satisfied that "the making of the agreement for arbitration or the failure to comply [therewith] is not in issue." With respect to the statutory language, the court stated:
[146 Ariz. 254]
Accordingly, if the claim is fraud in the inducement of the arbitration clause itself — an issue which goes to the "making
of the agreement to arbitrate — the federal court may proceed to adjudicate it. But the statutory language does not permit the federal court to consider claims of fraud in the inducement of the contract generally ... therefore ... a federal court may consider only issues relating to the making and performance of the agreement to arbitrate. In so concluding, we not only honor the plain meaning of the statute but also the unmistakably clear congressional purpose that the arbitration procedure, when selected by the parties to a contract, be speedy and not subject to delay and obstruction in the courts.
388 U.S. at 403-04, 87 S.Ct. at 1805-1806.
