Challenges to the Arbitral Award - Part 1 - Chapter 7 - AAA Yearbook on Arbitration and the Law - 24th Edition
BEN H. SHEPPARD, JR. is a Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the A.A. White Dispute Resolution Center at the University of Houston Law Center. From 1969 through 2005 he practiced at Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. where he was a Partner and Co-Chair of the firm's international dispute resolution practice. He was chair of AAA/ICDR task force that promulgated the 2006 amendment to the ICDR International Arbitration Rules that established a pre-arbitral emergency arbitrator procedure. He was the author of the report and recommendation to the ABA House of Delegates in support of the 2004 Revision to the AAA/ABA Code of Ethics for Arbitrators in Commercial Disputes. He chaired one of the two working groups that promulgated the CPR Protocol on Disclosure of Documents and Presentation of Witnesses in Commercial Arbitration. He is a past chair of the Disputes Division of the ABA Section of International Law and for five years served as editor-in-chief of The International Arbitration News. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators.
Originally from: AAA Yearbook on Arbitration and the Law - 24th Edition
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CHAPTER 7
CHALLENGES TO THE ARBITRAL AWARD
7.01 Statutory Deadlines for Submission of Application to
Vacate or Modify Award
M3 Healthcare Solutions v. Family Practice Assoc., P.A., 996
A.2d 1279 (Del. 2010)
A timely answer objecting to a motion to confirm an arbitration
award may be construed as a timely application for vacatur or
modification within the Uniform Arbitration Act.
Family Practice Associates (FPA) initiated an arbitration proceeding
against M3, a medical billing company. The arbitrator issued an award in
favor of FPA. FPA then filed a motion to confirm the award in the trial
court. M3 filed a timely answer, objecting to confirmation of the award
on various non-statutory grounds and requesting vacatur or modification
of the award. FPA then filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing
that M3 had failed to file a timely motion or application to vacate or
modify within the 90-day period required by the Uniform Arbitration Act
(UAA). The trial court granted FPA’s motion for summary judgment,
finding that M3’s answer objecting to confirmation of the award did not
constitute a proper application for vacatur or modification under the
UAA.
On appeal to the Supreme Court of Delaware, M3 argued that its
answer to FPA’s motion to confirm was sufficient to constitute an
application for vacatur under the UAA. The court, noting Delaware’s
liberal pleading standard, agreed. M3 timely notified FPA of its intention
to seek vacatur or modification by raising the filing an answer within the
required 90-day period under the UAA. The court found the fact that M3
did not raise its objections to confirmation in formal, separate motion
insufficient to entitle FPA to summary judgment. Therefore, the trial
court erred in granting FPA’s motion for summary judgment; it should
have instead considered M3’s timely answer containing objections to
CHAPTER 7 CHALLENGES TO THE ARBITRAL AWARD
7.01 Statutory Deadlines for Submission of Application to Vacate or Modify Award
- M3 Healthcare Solutions v. Family Practice Assoc., 996 A.2d 1279 (Del. 2010)
- James Valley Grain v David, 802 N.W.2d 158 (N.D. 2011)
7.02 Contractual Expansion of Grounds of Judicial Review
- Hall Street Assoc. v. Mattel, 552 U.S. 576 (2008)
- Brookfield Country Club, Inc. v. St. James-Brookfield, LLC, 287 Ga. 408 (Ga. 2010)
- Nafta Traders, Inc. v. Quinn, 339 S.W.3d 84 (Tex. 2011)
- Good Times Stores, Inc. v. Macias, 355 S.W.3d 240 (Tex.App.—El Paso 2011)
7.03 Challenges Based on Evidentiary and Procedural Issues
- STMicroelectronics, N.V. v. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, 648 F.3d 68 (2nd Cir. 2011)
- Positive Software Solutions v. New Century Mortgage Corp., 619 F. 3d 458 (5th Cir. 2010)
- U.S. Life Ins. Co. v. Superior Nat'l Ins. Co., 591 F.3d 1167 (9th Cir. 2010)
- Century Indem. Co. v. Certain Underwriters of Lloyd's London, 584 F.3d 513 (3d Cir. 2009)
- Bosack v. Soward, 586 F.3d 1096 (9th Cir. 2009)
- Turquoise Properties Gulf, Inc. v. Overmyer, --So. 3d--, 2011 WL 4507521 (Ala. 2011)
- Pirtek USA, LLC v. Whitehead, 51 So. 3d 291 (Ala. 2010)
- Hoso Foods, Inc. v. Columbus Club, Inc., 118 Cal. Rptr. 3d 594 (Cal. App. 2d 2010)
- Amoco D.T. Co., v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., 343 S.W.3d 837 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2011)
- Smith v. Tele-Town Hall, LLC, 798 F. Supp. 2d 748 (E.D. Va.)
7.04 Challenges that Arbitrators Exceeded their Authority
- Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. v. Garrett, 816 F. Supp. 2d 439 (5th Cir. 2011)
- Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. WMR e-PIN, LLC, 653 F.3d. 702 (8th Cir. 2011)
- Cat Charter, LLC v. Schurtenberger, 646 F.3d 836 (11th Cir. 2011)
- T.Co. Metals, LLC v. Dempsey Pipe & Supply, Inc., 592 F.3d 329 (2d Cir. 2010)
- Raymond James Fin. Servs. v. Bishop, 596 F. 3d 183 (4th Cir. 2010), cert. denied, __ U.S. __, 130 S. Ct. 145, 175 L. Ed 2d 36 (2009)
- Kelly Sutherlin McLeod Architecture, Inc. v. Schneickert, 125 Cal. Rptr. 3d 83 (Cal. App. 2 Dist. 2011)
- Templo Calvario Spanish Assembly of God v. Gardner Construction Corporation, 129 Cal. Rptr. 3d 574 (Cal. App. 5 Dist. 2011)
- Skidmore Energy, Inc. v. Maxus (U.S.) Exploration Company, 345 S.W.3d 672 (Tex.App—Dallas 2011).
- Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P., v. Official Unsecured Creditors' Committee of Bayou Group, LLC, 758 F. Supp. 2d 222 (S.D.N.Y. 2010)
7.05 Manifest Disregard of the Law
- Stolt-Nielson SA v. Animalfeeds int'l Corp., 130 S. Ct. 1758 (2010)
- Medicine Shoppe Int'l v. Turner Investments, 614 F.3d 485 (8th Cir. 2010)
- Lagstein v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, 607 F.3d 634 (9th Cir. 2010)
- Frazier v. CitiFinancial Corp. LLC, 604 F.3d 1313 (11th Cir. 2010)
- Stolt-Nielson SA v. Animalfeeds int'l Corp., 548 F.3d 85 (2d Cir. 2008), rev'd on other grounds, 130 S. Ct. 1758 (2010)
- Citigroup Global Mkts. Inc. v. Bacon, 562 F.3d 349 (5th Cir. 2009)
- Comedy Club, Inc. v. Improv. West Assoc., 553 F.3d 1277 (9th Cir. 2009), cert. denied 130 S. Ct. 36 (2009)
- Hereford v. D.R. Horton, Inc. 13 So. 3d 375 (Ala. 2009)
- Abco Builders, Inc. v. Progressive Plumbing, Inc., 647 S.E.2d 574 (Ga. 2007)
7.06 Non-Statutory Grounds for Review: Public Policy
- Thian Lok Tio v. Washington Hospital Center, 753 F. Supp. 2d 9 (D.D.C. 2010)
- Kitsap County Deputy Sheriff's Guild v. Kitsap County, 167 Wn. 2d 428 (Wash. 2009)