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Under Ohio law, parties can enforce arbitration awards through a common law suit on the award even after the statutory deadline for confirmation has expired, according to the Ohio Court of Appeals.
In MBNA America Bank, N.A. v. Canfora, No. 23588, 2007 WL 2318095 (Ohio Ct. App. Aug. 15, 2007), MBNA obtained two arbitration awards against Canfora, an MBNA cardholder. When Canfora failed to pay, MBNA filed a petition to confirm the awards. The trial court dismissed the petition without prejudice because MBNA failed to comply with an Ohio statute requiring the party seeking confirmation to submit a copy of the underlying arbitration agreement.
After an unsuccessful appeal, MBNA filed a second petition, this time for common law enforcement of the arbitration awards. When Canfora did not answer the petition, MBNA moved for default judgment. The trial court denied the motion and dismissed the petition without prejudice, holding that the agreement required resolution by binding arbitration under Ohio statutory law and that MBNA failed to comply with the statute by bringing the confirmation petition more than a year after the award was issued. MBNA again appealed, claiming that the trial court erred by applying a statutory deadline to a common law claim.
The Court agreed with MBNA and observed that MBNA sought only common law enforcement of the award, not statutory confirmation. The Court found that the trial court, in dismissing the petition, failed to address the common law basis for enforcing the awards and instead treated the petition as one for statutory confirmation.
Since it was undisputed that the awards were issued and that Canfora had failed to pay them, the Court found that the trial court erred in dismissing the second petition for confirmation. Furthermore, because MBNA had stated a claim upon which relief could be granted, the Court held that the trial court abused its discretion in denying MBNA's default judgment motion, since Canfora's failure to answer MBNA's second complaint was undisputed.
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