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Posts Tagged ‘Federal Arbitration Act Litigation’

Arbitration Law FAQ Guide: Challenging Arbitration Awards under the Federal Arbitration Act — Part II

September 12th, 2018 Arbitration and Mediation FAQs, Arbitration Practice and Procedure, Awards, Challenging Arbitration Awards, Federal Arbitration Act Enforcement Litigation Procedure, Grounds for Vacatur, Nuts & Bolts, Nuts & Bolts: Arbitration, Outcome Risk, Small and Medium-Sized Business Arbitration Risk, Small Business B-2-B Arbitration 2 Comments »
Awards Under the Federal Arbitration Act 1

Awards Under the Federal Arbitration Act 1

This is Part II of this two-part Arbitration Law FAQ Guide, which is designed to provide individuals and businesses with a brief and broad overview of challenging awards under the Federal Arbitration Act. Part I (here) addressed eight FAQs concerning this topic. This Part II addresses six more.

These FAQs, like the first eight, assume that a party is seeking to challenge a Federal-Arbitration-Act-governed arbitration award in a federal court having subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, and proper venue.

This guide is not legal advice or a substitute for legal advice. An individual or business contemplating a challenge of an award under the Federal Arbitration Act  should consult with an attorney or firm that has experience and expertise in arbitration law matters.

  1. What does a person have to prove to convince a Court to grant it vacatur, modification, or correction of an award?

Awards Under the Federal Arbitration Act 2

Awards Under the Federal Arbitration Act 2

An arbitration award is presumed valid and an award challenger has a heavy burden of proof to show otherwise. Some courts require clear and convincing evidence of certain grounds, such as evident partiality or corruption in the arbitrators. And even if a challenger can meet its burden, challenging an award under the Federal Arbitration Act must ordinarily be done in a summary proceeding, which is heard and determined in the same manner as a motion.

Generally, the challenger must establish that the only legitimate inference that can be drawn from the law and undisputed facts is that vacatur, modification, or correction of the award is warranted. Even where there are factual disputes, courts ordinarily will not order discovery or evidentiary hearings absent “clear evidence of impropriety.”  See, generally, Andros Compania Maritima, S.A. v. Marc Rich & Co., 579 F.2d 691, 701, 702 (2d Cir. 1978).

  1. What proceedings does a Court usually hold to determine applications to vacate, modify, or correct awards under the Federal Arbitration Act?

These applications are summary proceedings that are made and decided like motions. See 9 U.S.C. § 6. If there is not already pending an action between the parties in which a motion may be made, then a challenger can start a proceeding by filing and serving, among other things, a petition or application, a notice of petition or application, supporting affidavits, and a memorandum of law in support. The responding party serves and files a memorandum in opposition, along with any affidavits in support.

Since the matter is a summary proceeding, and since the ordinary pleading rules do not apply, courts generally require the challenger to make all of its arguments at the time its response is due, including arguments that might be made by pre-answer motion in an ordinary law suit, such as lack of subject-matter or personal jurisdiction. The responding party will also typically file a cross-motion to confirm the award, that is, a request that the Court enter judgment upon the award. See 9 U.S.C. § 9. Continue Reading »

Federal Arbitration Act Litigation Procedure Blog Posts on Final Arbitration Awards

December 30th, 2014 Arbitration and Mediation FAQs, Arbitration Practice and Procedure, Awards, Confirmation of Awards, Functus Officio, Grounds for Vacatur, Judicial Review of Arbitration Awards, Loree & Loree Arbitration-Law Blogs, Nuts & Bolts, Nuts & Bolts: Arbitration, United States Supreme Court Comments Off on Federal Arbitration Act Litigation Procedure Blog Posts on Final Arbitration Awards

Back when we began posting in 2009 we published a “Nuts & Bolts”  series post about final arbitration awards, which you can read here. Interestingly, enough, that post, according to Google Analytics statistics, is one of the (if not the) most popular post we’ve ever published.

That may seem a bit strange, but it’s really not. Whether or not an arbitration award is a final arbitration award bears on a number of important issues, including whether the award can be confirmed, vacated, modified or corrected, and whether it is a decision that the arbitrators have the authority to revisit. And whether or not an arbitration award can be confirmed, vacated, modified or corrected before the conclusion of an ongoing arbitration proceeding has obvious time-bar consequences in light of the short limitation periods for confirming, vacating, modifying and correcting awards: to avoid forfeiture, it may be necessary to commence post-award Federal Arbitration Act enforcement proceedings before the arbitration proceeding has concluded. (See Loree Reins. & Arb. L. Forum posts here & here.)

Given the recent launch of  the Federal Arbitration Act Litigation Procedure Blog, and the need to start posting what we hope will be interesting and useful material, we decided to kick-off with the finality topic. Earlier today we published the first  segment of the series Federal Arbitration Act Finality: Is this Arbitration Decision a Final Award, An Interim Final Award, a Partial Award, a Partial Final Award or. . . What??, which you can read here.

That post outlines the topic and describes a hypothetical arbitration that gives rise to five types of awards and rulings, four of which are issued prior to the award that concludes the arbitration. Future posts  will discuss whether or not each type of award is, or may in some circumstances be, a final arbitration award for  purposes of Chapter 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act.

Another thing we’ll discuss will be the affect, if any, of Stolt-Nielsen, S.A. v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp., 559 U.S. 662 (2010) on the final award issue. Of all the many issues discussed in the Stolt-Nielsen case the one we hear relatively little commentary about is the Supreme Court’s rejection of the dissent’s argument that the class-arbitration consent award was not ripe for judicial review.  See 559 U.S. at 667 n.2. As part of the Federal Arbitration Act Litigation Procedure Blog final-award series, we’ll consider that aspect of the Supreme Court’s ruling and its relevance to the question whether a partial award can be a partial final award if the parties consent.

And unless we  somehow feel compelled  to publish yet another post this year, we’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

Philip J. Loree Jr.