Reinsurance Focus

The present action before the US District Court in Nevada arose from a dispute between Dr. Ronald Slaughter and Laboratory Medicine Consultants regarding a stockholder agreement. A state district judge ordered the parties to arbitrate claims. A state court compelled the parties to arbitrate their disputes. Slaughter subsequently submitted an arbitration demand against LMC in September, 2007, after which he then tried to disqualify arbitrator Howard Roitman (which was denied). While arbitration was proceeding, Slaughter filed a suit in the Nevada federal court seeking to litigate issues encompassed by the arbitration. Slaughter then sought a stay of the arbitrtation pending litigation, but the Court denied the stay and dismissed the federal case in its entirety. Undeterred, Slaughter then filed another suit in federal court, this time against the AAA, Arbitrator Roitman, and two employees of the AAA alleging that his due process rights were violated during the underlying arbitration proceedings. Meanwhile, the arbitration continued, with rulings adverse to Slaughter. Defendants moved to dismiss the action, stating that they had immunity pursuant to N.R.S. § 38.229 for their conduct in administering arbitration proceedings and that the federal case was an impermissible collateral attack on the underlying arbitration. The Court agreed and dismissed the motion, specifically finding that Nevada’s Uniform Arbitration Act (cited above) protected the defendants against the suit. Further, the Court found that Slaughter’s action was an attack on the arbitration award and that his only relief would be to pursue vacatur of the award under the Federal and Nevada Arbitration Acts. Accordingly, the federal action was dismissed in its entirety. Slaughter v. American Arb. Assoc., Case No. 10-01437 (USDC D. Nev. June 2, 2011).

This post written by John Black.