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California state courts will not vacate an arbitration award for arbitrator bias when the party alleging bias offers no support for its accusation.
In Woo-Ming v. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., No. C050767, 2006 WL 3240100 (Cal. App. Nov. 9, 2006), Woo-Ming brought a medical malpractice action against Kaiser, alleging that physicians employed by Kaiser negligently prescribed medications.
The parties arbitrated the dispute, and the arbitrator held that the physicians did not act negligently. Woo-Ming petitioned the Court to vacate the award, arguing that the arbitrator was biased or corrupt.
However, the Court refused to vacate the award because none of the statutory grounds for vacating an arbitration award was present. Although a court may vacate an arbitration award when a party makes a showing of arbitrator bias, see Cal. Code Civ. P. §1268.2, Woo-Ming failed to make such a showing.
Woo-Ming did not submit a transcript of the arbitration hearing to the Court, and the Court held that it could not vacate an arbitration award for bias based solely on Woo-Ming’s accusation that the arbitrator was biased and the fact that the arbitrator has previously been appointed by Kaiser.
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