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Common law grounds for vacating arbitration awards clarified
April 05, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

The Nevada Supreme Court has made clear how difficult it is to overturn an arbitration award.

Nevada recognizes two common-law grounds for vacating arbitration awards. Saying they are "common law grounds" really means these are grounds that the legislature did not include in its list of reasons for overturning an award.

The case itself was routine. The arbitrator upheld the non-renewal of a school teacher's contract. The Nevada Supreme Court held that the award should not be vacated. Clark County Education Assn v. Clark County School Dist (Nevada 03/30/2006).

The court had previously recognized that an arbitration award may be vacated under two grounds: 1) where the award is "arbitrary, capricious, or unsupported by the arbitration agreement;" or 2) where "the arbitrator manifestly disregarded the law."

The court said:

• "Under the first ground, we clarify that the reviewing court may only concern itself with the arbitrator's findings and whether they are supported by substantial evidence or whether the subject matter of the arbitration is within the arbitration agreement."
• "Under the second ground, we conclude that the reviewing court may only concern itself with whether the arbitrator knew of the law and, if so, consciously disregarded it, not whether the ... arbitrator's interpretation of the law was correct."

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