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 […]
Review Of Legal Error Here Was Job For Court Of Appeal Though an error in law or fact is not a basis for overturning an arbitrator’s award, in California, the parties by agreement can make the arbitrator’s award reviewable for legal error. Here, the parties agreed that the award was to be reviewed […]
Failure To Observe 30-Day Deadline To File Rejection Or Request Trial Tubes Appeal Rothman v. Deshay, Case No. B245075 (2nd Dist. Div. 4 May 13, 2014) (Epstein, Manella, Edmon) (unpublished) is a Court of Appeal case that has its genesis in mandatory fee arbitration between attorney Rothman and client Deshay. Though unpublished, the case […]
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 […]
And So The Court Ducks Having To Decide A “Close” Question Our next case involves a dispute between minority and majority shareholders, and how to value the minority shares for purposes of a buyout by the majority. Minority shareholders argued that the arbitrator should have valued the shares under Operation Agreement requiring appraisal “without […]
Defendants Simply Could Not Overcome Substantial Evidence Standard After their 52-year-old sibling died following bariatric surgery, plaintiffs sued surgery center defendants for wrongful death. No, surgery center defendants did not immediately move to compel arbitration. Instead, they demurred, they moved to change venue, they propounded discovery that plaintiffs answered, and they took three depositions. […]
Also, Court Refuses To Sever Because Of Lack Of Mutuality No sooner did I post about McElroy v. Tenet Healthcare Corporation, a case reversing an order denying arbitration to a healthcare organization sued by a nurse, than I came across our next case, decided on the same day, and affirming an order denying […]
Ninth Circuit Instructs District Court To Award Plaintiff/Appellant Interest On Non-Contract Damages In Arbitration Award Above: Frenchman’s Flat, Nevada. Atomic cannon test. 1953. Library of Congress. Judge Duffy’s wry comment upfront signaled where the Ninth Circuit panel was going on this one: “Lloyd’s pussyfooted for years only to eventually deny the claim […]
Employer Didn’t Want To Arbitrate Usually employees want their day in court, and employers try to arbitrate, but our next case presents “the unique situation where . . . the employer refuses to arbitrate, arguing the employee waived her contractual rights to arbitrate.” The Court of Appeal had no difficulty satisfying itself that “substantial […]
Trial Court Must Conduct De Novo Review To Determine Whether Licensing Statute Requires Disgorgement of Compensation By Unlicensed Contractor Our next case addresses an important exception to the general rule that an arbitrator’s award cannot be vacated because of an error of fact or law: the “public policy exception.” The setting is a […]