Because a reinsurer participated in the arbitrator selection process, the reinsurer was precluded from seeking a stay on statute of limitations grounds pursuant to New York law, a New York appellate court ruled. As discussed in a previous post, the arbitration agreement stated that the parties’ arbitration would be governed by the “arbitration laws of New York State.” New York’s arbitration laws state that a party may raise statute of limitations defense as a threshold issue in the courts. By contrast, the Federal Arbitration Act states that the limitations defense is presumed to be reserved to the arbitrator, rather than the court, except where the parties agree to leave that issue to the court. In its most recent ruling, the court held that although the reinsurer had waived its ability to have the courts determine the statute of limitations issue, that issue may be determined by the arbitrators. In re ROM Reinsurance Management Co. v. Continental Insurance Co., No. 11809 654480/12 (N.Y. App. Div. May 21, 2014).
This post written by Whitney Fore, a law clerk at Carlton Fields in Washington, DC.
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