Opinion ID: 3172980
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: “Corruption” and “Misbehavior”

Text: The shipper’s second argument is that the panel chairman was guilty of “corruption” or “misbehavior” because he failed to disclose his illness to the parties; such disclosure, the shipper argues, was required by the SMA Rules, which governed the conduct of the arbitration. We find this argument no more convincing than did the District Court. We will simply emphasize that the shipper’s attempt to secure vacatur based on a violation of private arbitral rules runs headlong into the principle that parties may not expand by contract the FAA’s grounds for vacating an award. See Hall St. Assocs., LLC v. Mattel, Inc., 552 U.S. 576, 585‐88 (2008). Parties may, of course, “tailor some, even many, features of arbitration by contract,” id. at 10 586 (citation omitted); but if an arbitrator’s failure to comply with arbitral rules, without more, could properly be considered “corruption” or “misbehavior,” the FAA’s grounds for vacatur would be precisely as varied and expansive as the rules private parties might choose to adopt. We accordingly reject this argument. In sum, the shipper has established no ground on which to vacate the arbitral award. Accordingly, the District Court did not err in denying the shipper’s motion to vacate the award and granting the carrier’s motion to confirm it.