Justia Arbitration & Mediation Opinion Summaries

ECC appealed a final arbitration award of almost $7 million against them and in favor of Manatt. ECC argued that the trial court erred in confirming the interim award because the arbitrator violated mandatory disclosure rules, and that the trial court erred in confirming the final award. The court concluded that ECC did not establish that the arbitrator violated mandatory disclosure rules; ECC forfeited its argument that the 2007 engagement agreement was illegal; ECC did not establish that Manatt procured the final award by fraud or undue means; and ECC did not establish that the arbitrator improperly refused to hear evidence. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "ECC Capital v. Manatt, Phelps & Phillips" on Justia Law

Plaintiff-respondent Roberto Betancourt sued his employer, defendant-appellant Prudential Overall Supply (Prudential). In Betancourt's complaint, he alleged Betancourt and other Prudential employees worked over eight hours per day or more than 40 hours per week, and that Prudential failed to compensate Betancourt and other employees for all the hours they worked, as well as for missed breaks and meal periods. Prudential moved to compel arbitration but the trial court denied Prudential’s motion. Prudential argued on appeal the trial court erred. Finding no error, the Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment. View "Betancourt v. Prudential Overall Supply" on Justia Law

Bernard Norton, by and through Kim Norton, brought a wrongful death action against a number of defendants who were affiliated with a nursing home in which his wife, Lola Norton, died. Bernard claimed that negligent treatment caused Lola’s death. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint or, in the alternative, to stay the proceedings and compel arbitration of all claims in accordance with an agreement entered into by Lola at the time she was admitted to the nursing home. The trial court granted the motion to stay and compel arbitration, and Bernard appealed, contending that, as a wrongful death beneficiary, he could not be bound to Lola’s arbitration agreement. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court and found that Lola’s beneficiaries were not required to arbitrate their wrongful death claims against the defendants. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to determine whether an arbitration agreement governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) and entered into by a decedent and/or her power of attorney, which bound the decedent and her estate to arbitration, was also enforceable against the decedent’s beneficiaries in a wrongful death action. The Court found that such an arbitration agreement did bind the decedent’s beneficiaries with respect to their wrongful death claims, and, accordingly, reversed the Court of Appeals. View "United Health Services of Georgia, Inc. v. Norton" on Justia Law

Timothy Bevel appeals from an order granting a motion to compel arbitration. In March 2015, Bevel financed the purchase of a used Bennington brand boat and a Yamaha brand boat motor from Guntersville Boat Mart, Inc., and he rented a boat slip on Lake Guntersville to dock the boat. The sale and boat-slip rental were documented by a one-page bill of sale, which contained an arbitration provision. According to Bevel, the boat was seized several months after the transaction for allegedly defaulting on payments on the boat and boat-slip rental. Bevel disputed that he owed those payments. The matter was submitted to arbitration. The Supreme Court found, however, that the arbitration provision at issue here did not become part of the contract between the parties, and, thus, it could not be enforced against Bevel. Accordingly, the Court reversed the trial court's order compelling arbitration, and the case remanded the case for further proceedings. View "Bevel v. Marine Group, LLC" on Justia Law

Defendant was in debt under a credit card account that he opened and maintained with Bank of America, N.A. Bank of America assigned the right to collect the debt to CACH, LLC, and CACH filed a complaint seeking to recover $10,288.04 from Defendant. After CACH filed a motion for summary judgment, Defendant filed a motion to compel arbitration pursuant to the arbitration provision of the Cardholder Agreement entered into between Defendant and Bank of America. The hearing justice denied Defendant’s motion to compel arbitration because he had failed to raise a right to arbitrate as an affirmative defense in his answer. The justice then granted summary judgment in favor of CACH. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the hearing justice did not err in denying Defendant’s motion to compel arbitration; and (2) the superior court did not err in granting CACH’s motion for summary judgment. View "CACH, LLC v. Potter" on Justia Law

CBF, appellants and award-creditors, challenged the district court's two judgments dismissing CBF's initial action to enforce and subsequent action to confirm a foreign arbitral award against appellees as alter-egos of the then defunct award-debtor. The court granted appellees' petition for rehearing for the limited purpose of vacating the original decision and simultaneously issuing this amended decision to correct the court's instructions to the district court with regards to the applicable law for an enforcement action at Section I.c., infra. In No. 15‐1133, the court held that the district court both (1) erred in determining that the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards and Chapter 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. 201 et seq., require appellants to seek confirmation of a foreign arbitral award before the award may be enforced by a United States District Court and (2) erred in holding that appellants' fraud claims should be dismissed prior to discovery on the ground of issue preclusion as issue preclusion was an equitable doctrine and appellants plausibly alleged that appellees engaged in fraud. Therefore, the court vacated the judgment and remanded for further proceedings. In 15‐1146, the court held that the appeal of the judgment dismissing the action to confirm was moot and accordingly dismissed that appeal. View "CBF Industria De Gusa S/A v. AMCI Holdings, Inc." on Justia Law

Stephen Kaplan appeals from a judgment confirming a $30 million arbitration award against him. This matter arose when several investors (plaintiffs1) sued Kaplan and a limited liability company (referred to as Houston LLC2) alleging defendants breached fiduciary duties pertaining to plaintiffs' investment in a self-storage facility located in Texas. Plaintiffs sought compensatory damages and declaratory relief, but did not seek punitive damages. After the court granted defendants' unopposed motion to compel the matter to private arbitration, the arbitration hearing was stayed while Kaplan was criminally prosecuted for his conduct in soliciting and handling investments in self-storage facilities, including the property at issue in plaintiffs' lawsuit. After Kaplan pled guilty to a wire fraud charge in the criminal action but before his sentencing hearing, a telephonic arbitration hearing was scheduled. The arbitrator awarded plaintiffs $30,835,152.57 without specifying the grounds or nature of the award. Kaplan then requested that the arbitrator vacate or modify the award, but the assigned arbitrator recused himself from all further arbitration proceedings and the arbitration administrator declined to reassign the case. Although the award did not specify the nature of the damages, the parties agreed a substantial portion of the award consists of punitive damages. After review, the Court of Appeal concluded the judgment had to be reversed: the arbitrator exceeded his authority by awarding punitive damages without adequate prior notice to Kaplan, in violation of the parties' arbitration agreement and fundamental procedural fairness principles. View "Emerald Aero, LLC v. Kaplan" on Justia Law

Defendant Glenn Ciripompa was a tenured high school math teacher in the Bound Brook School District. Defendant's behavior came under the scrutiny of the Bound Brook Board of Education (Board) after the Board received copies of student Twitter posts alleging "Mr. C" was electronically transmitting nude photographs. An investigation uncovered defendant's pervasive misuse of his District-issued laptop and iPad, as well as evidence of inappropriate behavior toward female colleagues, often in the presence of students. The results of the investigation spurred the Board to seek defendant's termination from his tenured position and served as the substantive allegations of the two-count tenure complaint against defendant. In this appeal, the issue presented for the Supreme Court's review centered on whether an arbitrator exceeded his authority by applying the standard for proving a hostile-work-environment, sexual-harassment claim in a law against discrimination (LAD) case to a claim of unbecoming conduct in the teacher disciplinary hearing. After review, the Supreme Court found that the arbitrator impermissibly converted the second charge of unbecoming conduct into one of sexual harassment. The arbitrator's review was not consonant with the matter submitted; rather, he imperfectly executed his powers as well as exceeded his authority by failing to decide whether Count II stated a successful claim of unbecoming conduct in support of termination. The arbitrator's award was therefore ruled invalid. View "Bound Brook Bd. of Edu. v. Ciripompa" on Justia Law

In 1998, 52 U.S. states and territories entered into the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) with tobacco manufacturers (PMs), which released the PMs from tobacco-related consumer protection and product liability lawsuits in return for the PMs’ agreement to make annual payments to the states in perpetuity. This dispute concerned the application of the Non-Participating Manufacturer Adjustment (NPM Adjustment), a provision in the MSA that reduces the amount the PMs must pay to states that failed diligently to enforce certain legislation during a relevant year. PMs, Missouri, and other states arbitrated the dispute. More than twenty states and the PMs entered into a partial settlement agreement, but Missouri and other states did not join the settlement. The arbitration panel found that Missouri was not diligent in enforcing its legislative enactment and that the NPM Adjustment applied. Missouri sought relief. The trial court overruled Missouri’s motion to compel the PMS to engage in a single-state arbitration with Missouri over another dispute regarding application of the NPM Adjustment in a subsequent year but modified the award as requested by Missouri. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the trial court correctly refused to compel single-state arbitration; and (2) the trial court did not err in modifying the panel’s award. View "State ex rel. Greitens v. American Tobacco Co." on Justia Law

At issue in this case was a dispute between a pharmacy network administrator and various West Virginia pharmacies that were network members. Petitioners here were Caremark, LLC, companies affiliated with Caremark, LLC and individuals who were pharmacists-in-charge at certain CVS pharmacies (collectively, CVS/Caremark). Plaintiffs were six West Virginia retail pharmacies and six licensed pharmacists affiliated with those pharmacies (collectively, Pharmacies). Each of the six pharmacies had an agreement with Caremark. The agreements at issue contained an arbitration clause electing the American Arbitration Association (AAA) to govern arbitration. The Pharmacies filed a complaint against CVS/Caremark seeking injunctive relief for violations of W. Va. Code 30-5-7, 33-16-3q and 33-11-4 and also alleged tortious interference and fraud. CVS/Caremark filed a motion to dismiss the complaint and compel arbitration. The circuit court denied the motion. The Supreme Court reversed and remanded for the entry of an order dismissing this case and compelling arbitration, holding that the incorporation of the AAA rules into the arbitration agreements constituted clear and unmistakable evidence that the parties agreed to delegate questions of arbitrability to the arbitrator. View "West Virginia CVS Pharmacy, LLC v. McDowell Pharmacy, Inc." on Justia Law