Court Opinion

ID: 9844522
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:04:06.603988+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:36.764154
License: Public Domain

*408TROUT, Justice,
dissenting from Part III.
Because I believe that there was nothing for the district court to confirm, I must respectfully dissent from this portion of the opinion. As the Court noted, confirmation of an arbitration award makes such an award enforceable as any other judgment or decree. See I.C. §§ 7-911-914. The clear purpose of these provisions is to provide a party prevailing in arbitration with those remedies available to a judgment creditor. See, e.g., Bingham County Comm’n v. Interstate Elec. Co., 108 Idaho 181, 697 P.2d 1195 (Ct.App.1985) (entry of judgment upon confirmation of an arbitration award serves the purpose of allowing court enforcement of the terms of the award). However, where an award has been fully satisfied, confirmation of that award would give rise to a judgment based solely on a non-existent debt. In such an instance, there is no need to provide any enforcement remedies. Moreover, I am aware of no authority for the proposition that a court can entertain an action on a judgment that has been extinguished through satisfaction, and I do not believe that arbitration awards are entitled to any different or more favorable treatment.
In the present case, Farm Bureau paid the arbitration award in full within five days of its entry and prior to the commencement of this action. Accordingly, it was unnecessary for the district court to place its imprimatur on that award pursuant to I.C. § 7-911. Thus, while I do not agree with the district court that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to confirm the award in arbitration, I do agree that it correctly refused to enter a meaningless judgment on an award that had already been fully satisfied and that had, for all practical purposes, ceased to exist.