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Declaring that a person should not be "rewarded" for waiting in anticipation of a favorable award, then raising objections of untimeliness only after an unfavorable arbitration award has been issued, a state court in Connecticut has refused to vacate an arbitration award issued in a personal injury case.
In Bowser v. Vilar, No. CV030179644S, 2007 WL 969752 (Conn. Super. Ct. Mar. 21, 2007), Bowser alleged personal injuries suffered in a car accident with Vilar. Both parties subsequently agreed to arbitrate the dispute. Because the agreement contained no explicit time period within which the decision should be rendered, a statutory default time limit of thirty days apparently applied.
More than thirty days after a hearing on the matter, when the arbitrator still had not issued an award, the attorneys for both sides entered into negotiations to jointly request a decision. During that time, Bowser never mentioned the deadline; indeed, only after the arbitrator issued an award favoring Vilar did he object to the award as being untimely.
In refusing to grant Bowser's motion to vacate the decision, the Court noted first that Bowser's motion to vacate was itself made after the deadline to do so had expired. Second, given that Bowser had spent more than six weeks negotiating with Vilar without ever raising the default time limit, he had effectively waived his right to raise it later.
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