Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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Last month, the author described the National Football League’s arbitration system, with an appeal that goes to the league’s commissioner. (Cite and link to the article are below.) She discussed in detail a Missouri Supreme Court decision that overturned the commissioner’s ruling in an employment case. This month’s comment calls for changes in the NFL system in line with other leagues and, in its analysis, revisits the Deflategate scandal that began in 2015. 

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The Federal Arbitration Act and the U.S. Supreme Court have provided that there are four exclusive ways to vacate arbitration decisions. The most prevalent involves an analysis of evident partiality or corrupt arbitrators.

The majority in the decision of State ex rel. Hewitt v. Kerr, 461 S.W.3d 798 (Mo. 2015)(available at http://bit.ly/2Ade0kK), determined that the NFL Commissioner was inherently biased and therefore had evident partiality because he was employed directly by one of the parties in the dispute.

[For the full facts and holding in Hewitt, see last month’s analysis, Theresa Mullineaux, The Latest NFL Fumble: Using Its Commissioner as the Sole Arbitrator, 35 Alternatives 16 (February 2018)(available at http://bit.ly/2EB3IN3).]