Court Vacates $125M Award Due To Arbitrator’s Misleading Disclosures
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Today we take a close look at that rare creature: an opinion finding sufficient basis under the FAA to vacate an arbitration award. In Tenaska Energy Inc. v. Ponderosa Pine Energy, LLC, __S.W.3d __, 2014 WL 2139215 (Tex. May 23, 2014), the Supreme Court of Texas found an arbitrator had shown “evident partiality” due to his misleading “partial” disclosures of his contacts with the law firm representing the claimant.
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Legally, I find it interesting that even though the Texas Supreme Court acknowledged that the FAA governed, it rested its analysis largely on its own precedent decided under its state arbitration act. The court did not discuss, for example, the Fifth Circuit decision from just two years ago, finding a party had waived its claim of partiality under the FAA when it received partial disclosures from an arbitrator and took no further action. The Fifth Circuit found the disclosures at issue in that case “ were sufficient to put [the party] on notice of a potential conflict” and the party had a duty to reasonably investigate. That holding appears at odds with the Texas Supreme Court’s Tenaska decision, even though both courts are applying the FAA.
Read original articleTags: Fifth Circuit, LLC, Ponderosa Pine Energy, Supreme Court of Texas, Tenaska Energy Inc., Texas Supreme Court
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