stating that courts should apply the “completely irrational standard” when reviewing an arbitrator’s construction of the parties’ “substantive contractual provisions”
How later courts described this case
- stating that courts should apply the “completely irrational standard” when reviewing an arbitrator’s construction of the parties’ “substantive contractual provisions”
- concluding that the terms "remedy” and "relief” were too vague to include punitive sanctions
- vacating sanctions award against a party’s attorney because attorney was not bound by the parties’ arbitration agreement
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
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 *122 agreement 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.