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An arbitrator's denial of a party's request to postpone an arbitration hearing does not constitute arbitrator misconduct if the denial was not found to be unreasonable, an Oregon federal court held.
In Barinaga v. Cox, No. 05-1432 HU, 2007 WL 184687 (D. Or. Jan. 12, 2007), Louis Barinaga brought suit against Marvin Cox and his company with the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), based on sales of securities to Barinaga. A settlement was reached, but Cox would not sign and an arbitration hearing was scheduled.
Cox's attorney withdrew from his case. Three months later, Cox requested a postponement to obtain new counsel. The arbitrator denied his request and an arbitration award was issued against Cox in favor of Barinaga. Cox moved to vacate the award.
The Court rejected Cox's argument that the award should be vacated due to arbitrator misconduct, finding that the arbitrator's denial of Cox's request to postpone the hearing was not unreasonable. Cox waited until three months had passed from the time his attorney withdrew to request a postponement and had sufficient time to retain new counsel.
Further, Cox's allegations were not reliable because no "independent, contemporaneous evidence corroborating" the allegations was provided to support the motion to vacate. Finally, there was no evidence presented of any information that Cox was unable to present due to the arbitrator's denial of Cox's request to postpone the hearing.
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