PRETRIAL ADJUDICATION
...Contract Arbitration
......Modify/Vacate Award: Corruption; Misconduct
.........Disclosure of Relationships
 11 Cards On This Topic:
  • Nominee as neutral arbitrator; disclosures re business and personal relationships.
  • Error to vacate arb award based on failure to disclose as court could have found counsel forfeited the right–Dornbirer forfeiture principles remain viable after CCP 1281.85(c).
  • Error to direct arbitration per MFAA and BASF Rules, thus depriving D of right to disclosure of arbitrator's business relationships per CCP 1281.9; order confirming arb award reversed.
  • In commercial case unrelated to religion or the Holocaust, arbitrator not required to disclose he was a Jew, with German Jewish escapee parents, even had he known D had Nazi SS family history.
  • Arbitrator need not be deposed unless info sought is relevant to a "statement" or "conduct" of his which might disqualify him—here info sought involved his identity and family history, which he was not required to disclose.
  • Although arbitrator’s disclosure of prior relationships was statutorily incomplete, what he did disclose was sufficient to put P on notice of any potential bias.
  • Arb award need not be vacated on ground arbitrator refused to disqualify himself after receiving timely notice, when notice based on disclosure of info arbitrator not ••required•• to disclose.
  • JAMS arbitrator not required to disclose past, present, or prospective employment relationships with BofA, which bought entity which owned D where BofA not a party to proceeding.
  • Arbitrator who had served as pro bono mediator in case where P's attorney represented party with no connection to instant case had no duty to disclose prior service and refusal to vacate award for P proper.
  • Refusal to vacate arb award proper where D recognized mediator from his prior case, agreed that he mediate here, and all parties told of the relationship though not the complete name of the former case.
  • Arbitrator's nondisclosure of service as neutral arbitrator in prior non-collective bargaining matter was grounds for vacating award.


    •