Court Opinion

ID: 9415346
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 18:47:56.978881+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:21:11.068553
License: Public Domain

CARNES, Circuit Judge,
concurring specially:
I concur in Judge Barkett’s fine opinion and write separately only to emphasize how narrowly the decision in this case is limited to the unusual facts presented. Those facts are that: 1) the party who obtained the favorable award had conceded to the arbitration panel that its position was not supported by the law, which required a different result, and had urged the panel not to follow the law; 2) that blatant appeal to disregard the law was explicitly noted in the arbitration panel’s award; 3) neither in the award itself nor anywhere else in the record is there any indication that the panel disapproved or rejected the suggestion that it rule contrary to law; and 4)the evidence to support the award is at best marginal. The Court does not imply that it would find a manifest disregard of the law based on anything less than all of those factors. For example, the fact that an attorney misstated the law to the arbitration panel, as attorneys sometimes do, even if there was only weak evidence to support the award, will not justify a conclusion that the award resulted from a manifest disregard of the law.