Archives for March 2015

The First Circuit, citing numerous instances in which the arbitral panel’s decisions may have been erroneous and at least one that left the Court ‘perplexed’, nonetheless reversed the district court’s vacatur and remanded for entry of an order confirming the award. Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. v. Robert Michael Fenyk, No. 14-1252, (1st Cir. March 11, 2015). While the First Circuit may not have ‘squarely’ disavowed the doctrine of manifest disregard, if the doctrine isn’t applicable when the arbitrators ignored Florida’s one-year statute of limitations, has it been practically disavowed? [Read more…]

In a non-precedential opinion, the Third Circuit recently found that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts a Pennsylvania statute that precludes parties who are not registered to do business in Pennsylvania from maintaining any action in any court of the Commonwealth. Generational Equity, LLC v. Schomaker et al, 2015, No. 14-1291 (3d Cir. Feb.23, 2015).

Generational Equity sought to confirm an arbitration award in U.S.D.C. for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The FAA provides that the parties may specify a court in which an arbitration award may be confirmed. Here, the parties agreed that the arbitration would be administered pursuant to the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the AAA; Rule 48(c) provides that “[p]arties to an arbitration…shall be deemed to have consented that judgment upon the arbitration award may be entered in any federal or state court having jurisdiction thereof.”. [Read more…]