Court Opinion

ID: 9701448
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:19:47.794744+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:23.820983
License: Public Domain

DAVIE WILSON, Justice,
dissenting.
Today, the majority crosses a new threshold in requiring information to be disclosed by an arbitrator when the information is already known (even if not immediately recalled) by a litigant’s expert witness. Because the majority seems to interpret the governing statute in a reflexive “bright line” manner, I respectfully dissent.
I would affirm the trial court’s judgment because the trial judge could have determined the appellants, in the words of the statute, “had reason to know” of any bias and had therefore waived any complaint. Further, before making his ruling, the trial judge considered the settlement papers of the law suit from which the alleged bias arose. We have not done so, thus we decided the case on a different record than the trial court. By deciding this case without examining the settlement papers, we have deprived the appellees of the possibility that this Court would consider the relationship between the arbitrator and the expert witness trivial, thus unnecessary to disclose.
Accordingly, I dissent.