Court’s Arbitration-Award Review Powers Explained
The Second Department determined the petition to vacate the arbitration award was properly denied. The court explained its review powers:
“Judicial review of an arbitrator’s award is extremely limited” … . “A party seeking to overturn an arbitration award on one or more grounds stated in CPLR 7511(b)(1) bears a heavy burden,’ and must establish a ground for vacatur by clear and convincing evidence” … . An arbitration award may be vacated if the court finds that the rights of a party were prejudiced by (1) corruption, fraud, or misconduct in procuring the award; (2) partiality of an arbitrator; (3) an arbitrator who exceeded his or her power; or (4) the failure to follow the procedures of CPLR article 75 (see CPLR 7511[b]). An arbitration award may be vacated pursuant to CPLR 7511(b)(1)(iii) where “an arbitrator . . . exceeded his or her power,” which includes those circumstances in which the award “violates strong public policy, is irrational, or clearly exceeds a specifically enumerated limitation on the arbitrator’s power” … .
The petitioner’s contention that the arbitration award dated August 14, 2012, was against public policy is without merit. “An arbitration award violates public policy only where a court can conclude, without engaging in any extended fact-finding or legal analysis, that a law prohibits the particular matters to be decided by arbitration, or where the award itself violates a well-defined constitutional, statutory, or common law of this state” … . Matter of County of Nassau v Patalano, 2015 NY Slip Op 03837, 2nd Dept 5-6-15