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A New York appellate court affirmed an order denying confirmation of an arbitration award where the party seeking confirmation failed to prove that it served notice of the arbitration on the other party as required by the applicable arbitration rules.
In MBNA America Bank, N.A. v. Turull, No. 2006-1088KC, 2007 WL 1835408 (N.Y. App. Term June 21, 2007), MBNA filed an arbitration claim against Turull. Turull did not participate in the arbitration, and the arbitrator entered an award in MBNA's favor. The trial court denied confirmation of the award.
On appeal, the Court affirmed the denial of confirmation on the ground that MBNA failed to establish that it complied with the applicable arbitration rules – namely, the National Arbitration Forum Code of Procedure – in serving Turull with notice of the arbitration.
Specifically, the Court found that MBNA failed to prove compliance with Rule 6(A) of the Code of Procedure, which requires an arbitration claimant to serve the claim documents and a notice of arbitration on the other party. MBNA submitted an affidavit stating that the claim documents were served on Turull, but the affidavit did not specifically state that the notice of arbitration was served on Turull.
As an alternate basis for denying confirmation, the Court noted that even if the notice of arbitration was served, there was no indication that a second notice of arbitration was mailed as required by Rule 7(C) of the Code of Procedure. It's not clear why MBNA would be required to prove compliance with Rule 7(C) since the rule requires the arbitration administrator, not the claimant, to mail the second notice of arbitration.
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