ARBITRATOR’S AWARD WAS NOT IRRATIONAL, SUPREME COURT SHOULD NOT HAVE VACATED THE AWARD IN THIS REAR-END COLLISION CASE (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the arbitrator's award in this rear-end collision case should not have been vacated:
“It is well settled that judicial review of arbitration awards is extremely limited” … . As relevant here, a court may vacate an arbitration award if it finds that the rights of a party were prejudiced when “an arbitrator . . . exceeded his [or her] power or so imperfectly executed it that a final and definite award upon the subject matter submitted was not made” (CPLR 7511 [b] [1] [iii]).
… An arbitrator exceeds his or her power where, inter alia, the award is “irrational”… , i.e., “there is no proof whatever to justify the award”… . Where, however, “an arbitrator offers even a barely colorable justification for the outcome reached, the arbitration award must be upheld” … . Here, the arbitrator's determination is not irrational inasmuch as defendant submitted evidence establishing that plaintiff's injuries were not serious or were not caused by the accident … .
Plaintiff correctly concedes that the arbitrator did not “imperfectly execute[]” his power (CPLR 7511 [b] [1] [iii]), inasmuch as the arbitration award did not ” leave[] the parties unable to determine their rights and obligations,' ” fail to ” resolve the controversy submitted or . . . create[] a new controversy' ” … .
Additionally, “it is well established that an arbitrator's failure to set forth his [or her] findings or reasoning does not constitute a basis to vacate an award” … . Whitney v Perrotti, 2018 NY Slip Op 06343, Fourth Dept 9-28-18
ARBITRATION (ARBITRATOR'S AWARD WAS NOT IRRATIONAL, SUPREME COURT SHOULD NOT HAVE VACATED THE AWARD IN THIS REAR-END COLLISION CASE (FOURTH DEPT))/CPLR 7511(ARBITRATOR'S AWARD WAS NOT IRRATIONAL, SUPREME COURT SHOULD NOT HAVE VACATED THE AWARD IN THIS REAR-END COLLISION CASE (FOURTH DEPT))