The Florida Senate

684.25  Grounds for vacating an award or declaring it not entitled to confirmation.--

(1)  A final award shall be vacated or declared not entitled to confirmation by the courts of this state only if one or more of the following grounds is established:

(a)  There was no written undertaking to arbitrate, there was fraud in the inducement of that undertaking, or an arbitral tribunal impaneled in accordance with the undertaking had previously determined that the dispute was nonarbitrable or that the undertaking was invalid or unenforceable, unless the party challenging the award participated on the merits in the arbitral proceedings leading to the award without first having submitted such questions to the arbitral tribunal;

(b)  The party challenging the award was not given notice of the appointment of the arbitral tribunal or of the arbitral proceedings, unless notice proved impossible after efforts reasonably designed to give actual notice or such party waived notice or participated in those proceedings on the merits of the dispute;

(c)  The arbitral tribunal conducted its proceedings so unfairly as to substantially prejudice the rights of the party challenging the award;

(d)  The award was obtained by corruption, fraud, or undue influence or is contrary to the public policy of the United States or of this state;

(e)  Any neutral arbitrator had a material conflict of interest with the party challenging the award, unless that party had timely notice of the conflict and proceeded without objection to arbitrate the dispute;

(f)  The award resolves a dispute which the parties did not agree to refer to the arbitral tribunal, unless the party objecting shall have arbitrated the dispute without objection, and the tribunal's decision that such dispute was referred to it for arbitration was clearly erroneous, provided that a court may determine instead to vacate or to declare not entitled to confirmation only that portion of the award dealing with the excluded dispute; or

(g)  The arbitral tribunal was not constituted in accordance with the agreement of the parties, unless the party challenging the award waived the irregularity or participated in the arbitral proceedings without first objecting thereto.

(2)  The courts of this state shall not make an independent factual determination concerning whether the grounds described in paragraph (1)(c), paragraph (1)(f), or paragraph (1)(g) are present if the arbitration leading to the award was conducted under the rules of, or was subject to supervision by, an arbitral authority and such grounds were submitted to such authority as a basis for challenging the validity of the award or the conduct of the arbitration. In such a case, the determination of the arbitral authority concerning such grounds shall be final. In addition, if under the rules applicable to an arbitration the grounds described in paragraph (1)(c), paragraph (1)(f), or paragraph (1)(g) could have been but were not submitted to an arbitral authority as a basis for challenging the validity of the award or the conduct of the arbitration, the courts of this state shall not declare an award not entitled to confirmation or vacate that award or deny it confirmation on such grounds.

(3)  A court issuing an order to vacate an award or to declare that an award is not entitled to confirmation by the courts of this state may also order that all or part of the dispute between the parties be resubmitted to the same or a new arbitral tribunal as it deems appropriate.

History.--s. 1, ch. 86-266.