Opinion ID: 702558
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The NFA's appointment of the arbitration panel

Text: 17 Under 9 U.S.C. Sec. 10(a)(4), we are obligated to vacate an award where the arbitrators exceeded their powers in deciding the case. The arbitrators' powers are derived from the parties' agreement. AT & T Technologies, Inc., 475 U.S. at 648, 106 S.Ct. at 1418. Thus, in order to enforce an arbitration award, the arbitrator must be chosen in conformance with the procedure specified in the parties' agreement to arbitrate. Tamari v. Conrad, 552 F.2d 778, 781 (7th Cir.1977). Accord Cargill Rice v. Empresa Nicaraguense Dealimentos, 25 F.3d 223, 226 (4th Cir.1994); Szuts v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., 931 F.2d 830, 832 (11th Cir.1991); Avis Rent A Car System v. Garage Employees Union, 791 F.2d 22, 25 (2d Cir.1986). A trivial departure from the parties' agreement, however, may not bar enforcement of an award. Id., 791 F.2d at 25. 18 Pipkin contends that one of the arbitrators was not chosen in conformance with the selection procedure outlined in the Member Arbitration Rules. Section 3(a) of the Rules provides that arbitration proceedings shall be conducted before an arbitration panel consisting of three NFA Members or individuals connected therewith. One of the arbitrators selected for Pipkin's arbitration, Donald Weiss, was not an NFA Member, but performed more than 50% of his work on behalf of NFA Members. Pipkin charges that this does not conform with the NFA's previous interpretation of the connected therewith language which required 50% of the work to be performed on behalf of one NFA member. This prior interpretation, however, was merely for the benefit of staff and was neither published nor made with anything akin to notice and comment procedures. 5 Thus, we cannot say that it had become a part of the Member Arbitration Rules or the parties' agreement to arbitrate. Since the selection of the arbitrators fully conformed with Sec. 3(a), the arbitrators did not exceed their powers in settling this dispute.