If a court finds an arbitration agreement valid, any dispute over its terms must be handled by the arbitrator, the Commonwealth Court has ruled.

In a published decision in Hammond v. SEPTA, a split three-judge panel said the question of whether plaintiff Laurence Hammond properly revoked an agreement to arbitrate his workplace injury suit with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority was for the arbitrator, and not the trial court, to decide.

Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt said in the majority opinion that the trial court is authorized to answer two questions at the outset of a dispute stemming from an arbitration: whether an agreement to arbitrate was entered into and whether the dispute comes within the ambit of the arbitration provision.