Reinsurance Focus

Courts have continued to confirm arbitration awards. Recent decisions include one that characterizes the manifest disregard of law doctrine in the Seventh Circuit as being part of the statutory ground relating to the scope of the arbitrators’ authority.

• Exceeding authority: U.S. Postal Service v. Amer. Postal Workers Union, No. 08-5056 (D.C. Cir. Jan 23, 2009) (reversing vacation of arbitration award because it drew its essence from the parties’ contract); 2M Group, Inc. v. Solstice Mgmt., LLC, Case No. 07-136 (USDC N.D.Cal. Jan. 22, 2009) (award confirmed – arbitrator did not exceed authority); Amer. Employers Ins. Co. v. Robinson Outdoors, Inc., A08-510 (Mn. Ct. App. Feb. 10, 2009) (affirming confirmation of award under Minnesota law – award was within the authority granted to the arbitrators by the contract).

• Manifest disregard of law: Doerflein v. Pruco Securities, LLC, Case No. 07-738 (USDC S.D.In. Jan 30, 2009) (confirming award, rejecting challenges to how arbitration was conducted and manifest disregard of law; states that manifest disregard of law is an example of an arbitrator exceeding his/her authority under the FAA).

• Sufficiency of evidence: New York City Dist. Council of Carpenters Pension Fund v. B & A Interiors, Ltd., Case No. 07-5620 (USDC S.D.N.Y. Jan. 22, 2009) (award confirmed, rejecting argument that it was not supported by the evidence).

• Binding arbitration agreement: Cline v. Chase Manhattan Bank USA, N.A., Case No. 07-728 (USDC D.Ut. Jan. 29, 2009) (confirmed over objection that there was no binding arbitration agreement).

• Default: New York City Dist. Council of Carpenters Pension Fund v. Angel Constr. Group, LLC, Case No. 08-9061 (USDC S.D.N.Y. Feb. 2, 2009) (award confirmed – losing party did not appear to contest confirmation).

This post written by Rollie Goss.