The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a decision confirming an arbitration award in favor of Charles Schwab & Co. over allegations of discovery abuses that purportedly rendered the arbitration proceeding unfair. We previously wrote about the district court decision confirming the arbitration award in a prior post.
The appellant again argued to the Second Circuit that the arbitration panel had “refused to hear evidence pertinent and material to the controversy and thereby rendered the proceedings fundamentally unfair.” But the Second Circuit found the appellant failed to carry its burden to demonstrate the panel’s discovery-related decisions rendered the proceeding unfair. To the contrary, the court noted that the panel considered numerous discovery motions, including hearing oral argument, and further that Schwab produced more than 5,500 documents to the appellant over 14 different document productions.
In concluding, the court stated that “in light of the ‘great deference’ accorded to arbitrators ‘in their evidentiary determinations,” the court found the arbitration proceeding was not fundamentally unfair.
Evan K. Halperin Revocable Living Trust v. Charles Schwab & Co., No. 22-2748 (2d Cir. Nov. 29, 2023).