Contributor: George H. Friedman (George@SecArbAlert.com)
(ed: By reading how courts and arbitrators value, view and utilize testifying experts or decide issues experts encounter on a regular basis, one can better serve the factfinder, more effectively help the client, and more likely avoid a bad experience. For selected court decisions, we draw again from the Securities Arbitration Alert (SAA), and other resources. Note that all 2021-2024 back issues of the Alert can be downloaded free of charge here.)
“Petitioners seek to vacate an arbitration award entered against them arising out of a dispute over the management of their brokerage accounts. They claim that the arbitrators manifestly disregarded the law in resolving the dispute. The district court denied the petition, finding that it didn’t meet this difficult standard.[] Until recently, we understood federal jurisdiction to lie over petitions to vacate arbitration awards if a federal court would have had jurisdiction over the underlying dispute. McCormick v. Am. Online Inc., 909 F.3d 677, 683 (4th Cir. 2018). But in Badgerow v. Walters, the Supreme Court rejected that approach and held that the face of the petition must contain an independent jurisdictional basis beyond the Federal Arbitration Act (‘FAA’) itself. 596 U.S. 1, 9 (2022). Because no such jurisdictional basis exists here, we vacate the district court’s judgment and remand with instructions to dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction.”
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