Opinion ID: 1161648
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Confirmation proceedings

Text: On July 8, 1997, Sousaris filed a petition to confirm the arbitration award, and on July 16, 1997, Dr. Miller filed a petition to vacate the arbitration award. Both petitions were set for hearing on August 1, 1997. In his memorandum in support of his July 16, 1997 petition to vacate, Dr. Miller alleged that there was a social relationship between Dr. Peroff and Fried, and that Dr. Peroff's failure to disclose such a relationship amounted to evident partiality which constituted grounds for vacating the arbitration award under HRS § 658-9(2). See supra note 2. In an affidavit attached to the memorandum in support of his July 16, 1997 petition to vacate, Dr. Miller asserted that sometime after the arbitration award was issued, a person, whose identity Dr. Miller could not remember, called Dr. Miller and reported that he or she observed Dr. Peroff and Fried playing tennis at some unidentified time. In light of this allegation, Dr. Miller urged the circuit court to conduct an evidentiary hearing on the issue of impropriety and to grant him additional time for discovery. In a July 23, 1997 affidavit, Fried responded to Dr. Miller's allegations by admitting that he did recall playing tennis with Dr. Peroff in a tournament about ten years ago. At that time, Fried represented a plaintiff in a medical malpractice suit against Dr. Peroff. Fried also stated that he may have played tennis with Dr. Peroff on one other occasion in a tournament many years ago. Dr. Peroff also submitted a July 23, 1997 affidavit that was consistent with Fried's recollection. At the August 1, 1997 hearing on the petitions to confirm and to vacate the arbitration award, the circuit court found that the evidence presented fails to establish evident partiality or even a reasonable impression of partiality in this case, or any other grounds pursuant to [HRS §] 658-9 which would warrant vacating the award in this case. Accordingly, the circuit court orally granted Sousaris's petition to confirm the arbitration award and denied Dr. Miller's petition to vacate. On August 14, 1997, the circuit court filed its written order memorializing its oral determination.