Visiting Nurse Association of Florida, Inc. v. Jupiter Medical Center, Inc., 2014 WL 3360314 (SC11-2468, July 10, 2014)
Supreme Court of Florida
concludes the trial court cannot set aside an arbitrator’s award based on the claim that an
arbitrator’s construction of a contract renders it illegal.
This
case from the Supreme Court of Florida presents an interesting survey of the
present state of the law
relating to the authority of arbitrators and review of arbitration awards. The
following rules are gleaned from the case:
● the statutory grounds for modification
or vacation of an arbitrator’s award are exclusive and cannot be supplemented
by contract or by public policy;
● an arbitrator’s award cannot be
modified or vacated based on “manifest disregard of the law,” or, as the Court
phrased it, “mere errors of law;”
● an arbitrator’s award cannot be
modified or vacated based on a claim of contract illegality;
● the arbitrator and not the trial
court, either before or after arbitration, determines challenges to the
validity of the contract as a whole (as opposed to challenges to the severable
arbitration agreement itself); and
● an arbitrator does not exceed their power
(a statutory ground for modifying or vacating an award) when they misinterpret
contractual provisions or commit errors of law.
(From The Florida Bar Construction Law Committee)
Trenton H. Cotney
Florida Bar Certified Construction Lawyer
Trent Cotney, P.A.
1211 N Franklin St
Tampa, FL 33602
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