Confirming an Arbitration Award

Today, the Supreme Court of Ohio issued an opinion that directly addresses the procedure in Ohio for confirming an arbitration award.

In the case BST Ohio Corporation v. Wolgang, the court held that there is no requirement for a trial court to wait before confirming an award. The appellants argued that an award could not be confirmed for a minimum of three months. Though the 8th District Court of Appeals had agreed that such a waiting period existed, SCO disagreed.

Factually, the parties arbitrated their case and BST Ohio received an award in its favor. Upon receiving the award, BST immediately applied to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas for confirmation. Approximately 6 weeks later, confirmation of the award was issued by the court. In that six week window, Wolgang filed a motion to stay the proceedings, arguing (in part) that Ohio’s statute guaranteed Wolgang three months to make a motion to vacate, modify or correct the arbitration award.

At play are two different statutes: RC 2711.09 and RC 2711.13. The former requires a trial court to confirm an award upon application unless the award is vacated, modified or correct. The latter requires a party contesting confirmation to give notice to the party seeking confirmation that it has filed a motion to vacate, modify or correct an award AND it requires such notice be given within three months of the award.

In the end, SCO ruled that the time period imposed by RC 2711.13 is the maximum amount of time in which to file a motion to vacate. It is not a guaranteed amount of time to file. In other words, a trial court does not have to wait three months to confirm an arbitration award. If a party wishes to oppose such confirmation and vacate, modify or correct the award, it behooves them to do so as expeditiously as possible. Waiting three months is just not an option.