Arbitration, Employment: Where Defendant Employer Lost Small Merits Award And Fee Award After Reconsideration By Arbitrator, But Did Not Timely File Motions To Correct Or Vacate, Fee Award Had To Be Affirmed

Bright-Line Rules On Arbitration Procedures Adopted, With Plaintiff Employee Entitled To Fees On Appeal.

            This case may have more tips for practitioners and jurists when it comes to deadlines for parties seeking to correct and vacate arbitration awards, especially where a timely motion to confirm an arbitration award is made.  However, we briefly summarize what happened in Darby v. Sisyphian, LLC, Case No. B314968 (2d Dist., Div. 2 Jan. 26, 2023) (partially published), because an arbitration award was affirmed on appeal and the appellate court acknowledged that the winning plaintiff was entitled to fees on appeal, on remand, to the lower court.

            Plaintiff employee sued employer for various Labor Code violations.  The arbitrator found employee was owed $23,347.25 (only a partial win on the amounts she sought), and then initially found that no fees were awarded based on a prior motion to strike and plaintiff’s failure to apportion between successful/unsuccessful claims.  However, the arbitrator granted a motion for reconsideration by plaintiff, eventually awarding her $82,000 in attorney’s fees out of a requested $283,941.25 being sought.  Plaintiff timely filed a motion to confirm the arbitration award, with employer untimely filing a response to the confirmation petition and untimely filing a motion to vacate/correct the award.  The superior court judge found the employer’s papers were untimely filed, confirming the arbitration award—rulings which were appealed.   Those rulings were affirmed on review.

            Employer’s problem is that it did not timely file the response and vacate/correction papers.  The opinion has a good discussion of the time deadlines for post-arbitration award confirmation, correction, and vacatur papers at the superior court level—with a shorter 10-day deadline to respond or to vacate/correct applying to a petition to confirm awards filed fewer than 90 days after an award is served.  This deadline is jurisdictional, although there is some small amount of flexibility under the applicable statutes.  The import of the appellate decision is that these deadlines are strict in nature; and, if they are violated, the superior court must confirm the award and the appellate court is similarly bound. 

            In the end, the $82,000 in fees on a $23,347.25 award was affirmed, plus employer will be on the hook for plaintiff’s appellate fees (made clear in an unpublished portion of the opinion) as determined by the lower court on remand.