Want A Postponement? Gotta Ask For It An arbitrator’s failure to timely disclose a basis for disqualification and an arbitrator’s failure to grant a reasonable continuance in the proceedings may be grounds for vacating an arbitration award. Both issues were at play in Lawyers’ Mutual Insurance Company v. Law Offices of Diana Courteau, Case […]
In Which An In Pro Per Defendant/Appellant Takes On Adam Sandler’s Corporation . . . HP, a company owned by Adam Sandler, employed McDonald as a nanny for his children. When her employment ended, she entered into a confidential settlement agreement, and as a result, $48K was paid to her, and $32K was paid […]
Here, the landlord-tenant dispute arose because the tenant’s husband tragically died in an automobile accident, sometime after which rent payments ceased. The parties arbitrated their claims, and the arbitrator awarded $180,000 to landlord, discounting landlord’s claims of nearly $1.3M in damages chiefly because landlord failed to properly mitigate damages. The trial court confirmed the […]
Standard Of Review Pretty Much Ordained The Result Here, And Nothing Was Changed By Appealing This is one of those “Cain v. Abel” disputes, in which beneficiaries/brothers (Douglas and Martin Buser), fought over their parents’ family trust. It appears Douglas fought tooth and nail, but unsuccessfully, getting hit with attorney’s fees assessed against his […]
All Things Considered . . . Appellant Akin’s opening brief stated: “All things considered . . . it was assumed that the May 30th arbitration had been cancelled.” The lesson of our next case is that one who fails to show up for a scheduled arbitration hearing had better dot i’s and cross […]
How About Two Years – Is Two Years Good For You? Brothers appealed from a superior court order denying their petition to vacate several awards of an arbitrator with whom they were dissatisfied. They contended the arbitrator failed to disclose his professional relationship with opposing party’s counsel. In 2011, one of the appellants discovered […]
Standard of Review, As Well As JAMS Rules, Largely Determine The Outcome As the Court of Appeal explains in the next case, “[w]e apply a highly deferential standard of review to the award itself, insofar as our inquiry encompasses the arbitrators’ resolution of questions of fact or law.” Put even more succinctly, “it […]
Once Again, Fourth Appellate District Demonstrates That Often There’s More Than One Way To Skin A Cat Where Arbitration Deadlines Are Involved Cats. 1927. Library of Congress. On April 4, 2014, we posted about the way a plaintiff found to get around a deadline in arbitration: after the time ran out to modify […]
Arbitrators Acted Within Their Powers, So It Didn’t Change Results Even If They Erred In the underlying dispute, Plaintiffs obtained a substantial award of $150,000 compensatory and $302,784 in punitive damages, blown out when the Court of Appeal ruled that the dispute, related to lease provisions, was subject to arbitration. Defendants then moved, successfully, […]
Once Plaintiff Knew of Arbitrator’s Relationship With Defendant, Plaintiff Was On Inquiry Notice To Ask About Details An arbitrator must make certain disclosures within 10 days of receiving notice of his or her nomination to serve as a neutral arbitrator. See CCP section 1281.9. Once the arbitrator makes those disclosures, a party has 15 […]