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Posts Tagged ‘Final Decision with respect to Arbitration’

Confirming Awards Part I | Post-Award Federal Arbitration Act Enforcement Litigation | Section 9 of the Federal Arbitration Act | Businessperson’s Federal Arbitration Act FAQ Guide

June 12th, 2020 Arbitrability, Arbitration and Mediation FAQs, Arbitration as a Matter of Consent, Arbitration Law, Arbitration Practice and Procedure, Awards, Confirmation of Awards, Consent to Confirmation, Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, FAA Chapter 1, FAA Chapter 2, Federal Arbitration Act Enforcement Litigation Procedure, Federal Arbitration Act Section 1, Federal Arbitration Act Section 2, Federal Arbitration Act Section 9, Judicial Review of Arbitration Awards, Nuts & Bolts, Nuts & Bolts: Arbitration, Petition or Application to Confirm Award, Small Business B-2-B Arbitration 5 Comments »
confirm awards

Favorable arbitration awards are wonderful things, but they do not enforce themselves. Sometimes the other side voluntarily complies, but if not, there is little the arbitrator can do to help.

Arbitrators are not judges and do not have the authority to garnish wages, seize property, foreclose on encumbered property, freeze bank accounts, impose contempt sanctions, and so forth. Parties can delegate to arbitrators broad adjudicatory and remedial authority, but that is relevant only to the nature and scope of their awards and does not confer power on the arbitrators to enforce their awards coercively.

Apart from its potential preclusive effect in subsequent litigation or arbitration, an arbitration award stands on the same footing as any other privately prepared legal document, and for all intents and purposes it is a contract made for the parties by their joint agent of sorts—the arbitrator or arbitration panel. It may be intended by the arbitrator or panel, and at least one of the parties, to have legal effect, but it is up to a court to say what legal effect it has, and, if necessary, to implement that legal effect through coercive enforcement.

A judgment, by contrast, is an official decree by a governmental body (the court) that not only can be coercively enforced through subsequent summary proceedings in the same or other courts (including courts in other states and federal judicial districts), but is, to some extent, self-enforcing. A judgment, for example, can ordinarily be filed as a statutory lien on real property, and applicable state or federal law may, for example, authorize attorneys to avail their clients of certain judgment-enforcement-related remedies without prior judicial authorization.

The Federal Arbitration Act, and most or all state arbitration statutes, provide for enforcement of arbitration awards through a procedure by which a party may request a court to enter judgment on the award, that is to “confirm” it. Once an award has been reduced to judgment, it can be enforced to the same extent as any other judgment. See, e.g., 9 U.S.C. § 13 (Under Federal Arbitration Act, judgment on award “shall have the same force and effect, in all respects, as, and be subject to all the provisions of law relating to, a judgment in an action; and it may be enforced as if it had been rendered in an action in the court in which it is entered”); Fla. Stat. § 682.15(1)( “The judgment may be recorded, docketed, and enforced as any other judgment in a civil action.”); N.Y. Civ. Prac. L. & R. § 7514(a) (“A judgment shall be entered upon the confirmation of an award.”).

Chapter One of The Federal Arbitration Act (the “FAA”), and most or all state arbitration statutes, authorize courts to confirm domestic awards in summary proceedings. State arbitration-law rules, procedures, limitation periods, and the like vary from state to state and frequently from the FAA, and state courts may apply them to FAA-governed awards (provided doing so does not frustrate the purposes and objectives of the FAA).

Chapter 2 of the FAA provides some different rules that apply to the confirmation of domestic arbitration awards that fall under the Convention on the Recognition of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the “Convention”), and the enforcement of foreign arbitration awards falling under the Convention (i.e., awards made in territory of a country that is a signatory to the Convention).

Our focus here is on the Federal Arbitration Act’s requirements for confirming arbitration awards made in the U.S., including awards that fall under Chapter 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act. These awards fall into two categories: (a) awards that fall under Chapter One of the Federal Arbitration Act only (“Chapter One Domestic Awards”); and (b) awards made in the U.S. that fall under the Convention, and thus under both Chapter One and Chapter Two of the Federal Arbitration Act (“Chapter Two Domestic Awards”).

This segment addresses FAQs concerning the confirmation of Chapter One Domestic Awards and focuses on the substantive requirements for confirming Chapter One Domestic Awards under the Federal Arbitration Act. The next segment will discuss the procedural requirements for confirming such Awards. Future posts will answer some additional FAQs concerning the confirmation of such Awards, and another future segment will review special requirements applicable to the confirmation of Chapter Two Domestic Awards.

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Arbitration Nuts and Bolts: Federal Appellate Jurisdiction over Orders Compelling Arbitration and Staying Litigation

March 21st, 2019 Appellate Jurisdiction, Appellate Practice, Arbitrability, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration and Mediation FAQs, Arbitration Practice and Procedure, Authority of Arbitrators, FAA Section 16, Federal Arbitration Act Section 3, Federal Arbitration Act Section 4, Nuts & Bolts, Nuts & Bolts: Arbitration, Practice and Procedure, Stay of Arbitration, Stay of Litigation, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit 1 Comment »

Introduction

Appellate Jurisdiction 1

Today we look at federal appellate jurisdiction over orders compelling arbitration and staying litigation.

Sections 3 and 4 of the Federal Arbitration Act (the “FAA”) provide remedies for a party who is aggrieved by another party’s failure or refusal to arbitrate under the terms of an FAA-governed agreement. FAA Section 3, which governs stays of litigation pending arbitration, requires courts, “upon application of one of the parties,” to stay litigation of issues that are “referable to arbitration” “until arbitration has been had in accordance with the terms of the parties’ arbitration agreement, providing [the party applying for a stay] is not in default in proceeding with such arbitration.” 9 U.S.C. § 3. Faced with a properly supported application for a stay of litigation of an arbitrable controversy, a federal district court must grant the stay. 9 U.S.C. § 3.

Section 4 of the FAA authorizes courts to make orders “directing arbitration [to] proceed in the manner provided for in [the [parties’ written arbitration] agreement[,]” and sets forth certain procedures for adjudicating petitions or motions to compel arbitration. 9 U.S.C. § 4. It provides that when a court determines “an agreement for arbitration was made in writing and that there is a default in proceeding thereunder, the court shall make an order summarily directing the parties to proceed with the arbitration in accordance with the terms thereof.” 9 U.S.C. § 4 (emphasis added). Just as courts must grant properly supported applications for relief under Section 3, so too must they grant properly supported applications for relief under Section 4. See 9 U.S.C. §§ 3 & 4.

There is much to be said about the many issues that may arise out of applications to stay litigation, compel arbitration, or both, but our focus here is on the appellate jurisdiction of the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals over appeals from the grant or denial of such applications. Before a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals can hear an appeal on the merits of a federal district court’s order and judgment, it must be satisfied that: (a) the federal district court had original subject matter jurisdiction (e.g., diversity jurisdiction or federal question jurisdiction); (b) there is still a “case or controversy” within the meaning of Article III of the U.S. Constitution (e.g., the controversy has not become moot by settlement or otherwise); and (c) the order or judgment appealed from is one over which it has appellate jurisdiction.

Appellate Jurisdiction and the FAA

Appellate Jurisdiction 2

Appellate jurisdiction refers to a Circuit Court of Appeals’ power to review, amend, vacate, affirm, or reverse the orders and judgments of the district courts within the judicial circuit over which the Court of Appeals presides. Generally, and outside the context of injunctions and the certification procedure of 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b), U.S. Courts of Appeal have jurisdiction to review only “final decisions” of district courts. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291, 1292. A “final decision” “is a decision that ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing more for the court to do but execute the judgment.” Green Tree Financial Corp. v. Randolph, 531 U.S. 79, 86 (2000) (citations and quotations omitted).

But Federal Arbitration Act litigation is quite different from ordinary litigation from both a substantive and procedural prospective, and so it comes as no surprise that the FAA features its own set of appellate jurisdiction rules.

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