New York limits judicial intrusion into arbitration awards, reflecting the core principles of finality, deference to arbitrators’ rulings, and the narrow grounds for vacatur under CPLR 7511.

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber In Badme v. AECOM , 2025 N.Y. Slip Op. 06640, (1st Dept. Dec. 02, 2025), plaintiff sued for age discrimination after termination, arguing the arbitration clause in his employment contract expired when the contract ended. The motion court held that the arbitration agreement remained enforceable, citing the contract’s broad arbitration clause and survival clause. The Appellate Division, First Department, affirmed, emphasizing that the contract’s broad arbi

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber In Allen v. Fidelity Brokerage Servs. LLC , 2025 N.Y. Slip Op. 34169(U) (Sup. Ct., N.Y. County Oct. 30, 2025), plaintiff, the representative of her son’s estate, sought to vacate a FINRA arbitration award after claims alleging negligent oversight of speculative options trading were denied. The arbitration panel imposed $25,000 in sanctions for violating FINRA Rule 12209 by filing a parallel court action. Plaintiff argued the panel exceeded its authority

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber As we have noted in prior articles, New York has a “long and strong public policy favoring arbitration”. Indeed, New York “favors and encourages arbitration as a means of conserving the time and resources of the courts and the contracting parties.” “Therefore, New York courts interfere as little as possible with the freedom of consenting parties to submit disputes to arbitration.”   “Nonetheless, ‘ ike contract rights generally, a right to arbitration

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber Under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) and Article 75 of New York’s Civil Practice Law and Rules (“CPLR”), an action should be dismissed or stayed, and the claims referred to arbitration when they are subject to a broad, mandatory arbitration provision in the parties’ governing agreement. The FAA provides that written agreements to arbitrate are “valid, irrevocable, and enforceable” and “places arbitration agreements ‘upon the same footing as other co

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber As readers know from past articles, CPLR § 7511 (b) sets forth the statutory grounds for vacating an arbitration award. Under that section, a court may vacate an award if the rights of the movant were prejudiced by: (1) corruption, fraud or misconduct in procuring the award; (2) partiality of the arbitrator; (3) the arbitrator exceeding or imperfectly executing his/her power; or (4) the arbitrator failing to follow the procedure of Article 75. With resp

By:   Jeffrey M. Haber In Light & Wonder, Inc. v. Mohawk Gaming Enters. LLC , 2025 N.Y. Slip Op. 51070(U) (Sup. Ct., N.Y. County July 2, 2025 ( here ), the Supreme Court, New York County, Commercial Division, upheld an arbitrator’s class certification award. The decision centered on whether the arbitrator exceeded his authority or manifestly disregarded the law by certifying a class without individually analyzing the arbitration clauses of absent class members. Light & Wonder

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber In today’s article, we discuss how courts interpret arbitration clauses in contracts by focusing on  Perle Tech. Inc. v. United Apollo Intl. Inc. , a case recently decided in Supreme Court , Kings County. Despite the use of the word “may” in the arbitration clause, the court held that arbitration was mandatory, not permissive, due to other contract provisions indicating clear intent to arbitrate. The decision underscores the point that under New York la

By: Jeffrey M. Haber New York “favors and encourages arbitration as a means of conserving the time and resources of the courts and the contracting parties”. Under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), “‘questions of arbitrability must be addressed with a healthy regard for the federal policy ... any doubts concerning the scope of arbitrable issues should be resolved in favor of arbitration.’” Thus, “where the contract contains an arbitration clause, there is a presumption

By: Jeffrey M. Haber In Idi v. Sela , 2025 N.Y. Slip Op. 01890 (1st Dept. Apr. 1, 2025) ( here ), the Appellate Division, First Department addressed an issue of contract interpretation that this Blog often examines: enforcing written agreements that are complete, clear, and unambiguous on their face. Under New York law, written agreements are construed in accordance with the parties’ intent . “The best evidence of what parties to a written agreement intend is what they say in

By: Jeffrey M. Haber Arbitration is an alternative to a court proceeding. It is an adversarial proceeding in which the parties can call witnesses and present evidence to a neutral arbitrator or panel of arbitrators. The rules of discovery and evidence are relaxed to make it a more cost-efficient process. Typically, arbitrations are conducted by a private firm in which an attorney or retired judge, selected by the parties, presides over the proceeding. Arbitration can be bindi

By: Jeffrey M. Haber In Bron v. Fritch , 2024 N.Y. Slip Op. 32439(U) (Sup. Ct., N.Y. County July 12, 2024 ( here ), the court was asked to confirm an arbitration award, pursuant to CPLR 7510, stemming from various disputes between the owners of a company engaged in electrical contracting. As discussed below, the court confirmed the award .  The parties in Bron jointly owned E. Electric Contracting Inc. (“EEC”). Their respective duties and ownership interests were governed by

By: Jeffrey M. Haber Arbitration is an alternative form of dispute resolution where the parties voluntarily agree that a neutral person will resolve any legal disputes between them, instead of a judge or jury in a court of law. It is encouraged and recognized as the public policy of the State of New York. 1 Consequently, courts will interfere as little as possible with the agreement of consenting parties to submit their disputes to arbitration. 2 Since arbitration is a “cre

By: Jeffrey M. Haber This Blog has posted numerous articles concerning vacatur of an arbitration award under Article 75 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules (“CPLR”). E.g. , here , here , and here . On occasion, we have posted articles concerning vacatur under the Federal Arbitration Action (“FAA”). Today, we revisit vacatur under the FAA through our examination of Matter of Patel v. Macy’s Inc. , 2024 N.Y. Slip Op. 02782 (1st Dept. May 21, 2024) ( here ). Patel involved a pe

By: Jeffrey M. Haber In New York, Article 75 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules (“CPLR”) governs the confirmation, vacatur, modification, and enforcement of arbitration awards. Under CPLR 7511(b)(1)(iii), a court may vacate an arbitration award if “an arbitrator, or agency or person making the award exceeded his power or so imperfectly executed it that a final and definite award upon the subject matter submitted was not made.” In addition, a court may vacate an award when it

By: Jeffrey M. Haber Arbitration is an alternative form of dispute resolution where the parties voluntarily agree that a neutral, private person will resolve any legal disputes between them, instead of a judge or jury in a court of law. 1 In business and commercial transactions, arbitration is the preferred means of resolving disputes. It is encouraged and recognized as the public policy of the State of New York. 2 Consequently, courts will interfere as little as possible w

By: Jeffrey M. Haber Under Section 10(a) of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), a court will vacate an arbitral award for the following reasons: (1) the award was procured by corruption, fraud, or undue means; (2) there was evident partiality or corruption in the arbitrators . . . ; (3) the arbitrators were guilty of misconduct in refusing to postpone the hearing, or in refusing to hear evidence pertinent and material to the controversy, or of any other misbehavior by which

By: Jeffrey M. Haber The doctrine of collateral estoppel prevents a party from relitigating an issue that was “raised, necessarily decided and material in the first action,” provided the party had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue. 1 Collateral estoppel is an equitable defense “grounded in the facts and realities of a particular litigation, rather than rigid rules.” 2 The proponent of collateral estoppel has the burden of demonstrating “the identicality and

By: Jeffrey M. Haber Arbitration is an alternative form of dispute resolution where the parties voluntarily agree that a neutral, private person will resolve any legal disputes between them, instead of a judge or jury in a court of law. 1 In business and commercial transactions, arbitration is the preferred means of resolving disputes. It is encouraged and recognized as the public policy of the State of New York. 2 For this reason, “New York courts interfere as little as po

By: Jeffrey M. Haber We have noted previously that the “policy of to encourage arbitration.” 1 For this reason, “ ny doubts as to whether an issue is arbitrable will be resolved in favor of arbitration.” 2 When a party wishes to compel arbitration, that party must establish “the existence of a valid agreement to arbitrate”. 3 This means that, among other things, all parties to the agreement have the power and authority to enter into the agreement. In Wolf v. Hollis Operat