Court Opinion

ID: 9757142
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:20:27.691713+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:35.274681
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion by
MURPHY, Chief Judge.
While I concur in the judgment, I am concerned about parties to an arbitration proceeding conducted pursuant to an *122agreement that does not expressly authorize the arbitrator to impose sanctions for conduct that a court could impose under Maryland Rule 1-341. Agreements to arbitrate are favored because all parties to a dispute can benefit from a properly conducted arbitration proceeding. Blitz v. Beth Isaac, 352 Md. 31, 44 n. 13, 720 A.2d 912 (1998). Rambo tactics, however, are just as out of place in an arbitration proceeding as they are in a judicial proceeding.
The Court of Appeals has made it clear that the Maryland Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct (MLRPC)have “the force of law,” Post v. Bregman, 349 Md. 142, 164, 707 A.2d 806 (1998). I am therefore persuaded that, when the arbitration agreement does not authorize the arbitrator to impose sanctions on a lawyer who is “throughout the ... arbitration, ... obstructive, discouraging of the process of arbitration, [and whose] objections ... and ... examination of witnesses wasted considerable time and multiplied the costs of [the] proceedings,” Maryland law entitles the party who has been victimized by such misbehavior to assert a separate civil action, against the offending party and/or the attorney for the offending party, in order to recoup reasonable — but needlessly incurred — costs and counsel fees.