Case ID: scl_2/html/0450-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "The Judges,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Thomas Sumpter against William Murrell.
    
      Columbia,
    
    1802.
    Where arbitrators are not guilty of misconduct, nor have committed any great mistake, the court will not openanawarcl, hut iu/ld the parties to their decision.
    MOTION to reverse the order of the circuit court at Sumter district, confirming an award.
    The ground upon which the counsel, Mr. Mathis, rested .. this motion, was, that the arbitrators had made a great mistake in this case, by not giving defendant credit for a family of negroes sold to the plaintiff, of the value of 175.1. sterling, which mistake was a sufficient ground for setting aside the award in this case, and had been urged in the circuit court against the motion which was made to confirm the award, but he was overruled in his objection. The presiding judge reported, that a certificate was produced from the arbitrators, that they had been of opinion when they were investigating the accounts between the parties, that the negroes in question had been given by Mr. Murrell to the plaintiff in payment for land purchased of him, and, therefore, did not form an item in the accounts for their consideration.
   The Judges,

after considering this case, were of opinion, that if so great a mistake as that stated by the defendant’s counsel had really been committed by the arbitrators, it would have been a very reasonable ground for setting aside the award ; but the reason assigned by the arbitrators, shews that they had taken the value of the negroes into consideration, and had been pf opiniop, that they had been given in payment of a land purchase which did not coiné before them, and which sufficiently removes the impression as to the alleged fact of its being a mistake or an omission qn the part of the arbitrators.

That the court had on repeated occasions set their faces against the opening of awards, unless for misconduct on the part of the referees, or for some palpable mistake or omission, which did not appear in the presentíase. They were judges and juries of the parties’ own choosing, and therefore it was both reasonable and just, that they should be bound by their decisions, and that these should not lightly be set aside.

Rule for reversing the decision of the circuit court dismissed.

All the Judges present.