The Supreme Court of Kentucky released its summary of published decisions for March 2014. This month you will find issues covered that include trial judge’s authority to set aside his earlier order compelling arbitration; annexation; five attorney disciplinary decisions. Criminal law cases included new trial request for “newly discovered evidence”; the “inference upon inference” rule. No civil negligence, torts, insurance or civil decisons this month; so Kentucky’s personal injury and auto accident lawyers can take a pass from the Supremes (not the Court of Appeals) on cases and updates.
There is “fly fishing” and “fish flying”. For the latter (or ladder), then here is a picture from the Louisville Waterfront. My idea of “shark week” is a little tamer that that of the discovery channel.
Photo by Michael Stevens, 4/2013.
Here is the arbitration decision:
Bluegrass Powerboats; and James D. Taylor
2011-SC-000668-DG March 20, 2014
Opinion of the Court by Justice Noble. Minton, C.J.; Cunningham, Keller, and Venters, JJ., concur. Abramson, J., concurs in result only without separate opinion. Scott, J., not sitting.
Appellant, Taylor, sued Chase Bank, Appellee, after a check for the purchase of Appellant’s business was initially credited to his account, and then subsequently returned for insufficient funds. Appellant’s account was debited the amount of the check, and as a result Appellant’s account was overdrawn.
Chase argued that the suit was subject to an arbitration agreement. The trial court agreed after a hearing on the existence of an arbitration agreement and ordered the case to arbitration. In arbitration, Taylor’s claim was dismissed. Then, in light of this Court’s ruling in Ally Cat, LLC v. Chauvin, Taylor moved the trial court to set aside its previous order compelling arbitration because there had never been any proof of the arbitration agreement. 274 S.W.3d 451 (Ky. 2009). At the same time, Chase filed a motion to confirm the arbitrator’s award. The trial court found that its previous ruling had been in error and denied Chase’s motion to confirm the arbitrator’s award. Chase then took an immediate interlocutory appeal of the order denying its motion to confirm the arbitration order and argued that the trial court was bound to confirm the arbitrator’s decision and could not set aside the earlier order compelling arbitration. The Court of Appeals disagreed and affirmed the trial court.
The issue addressed by the Court was whether a trial court has the authority to set aside an earlier order compelling arbitration, and thus void the arbitration, or instead must be compelled to confirm the arbitration order. The Court held that the trial court did not err in finding that there was no arbitration agreement, and that the trial court had the power to correct its prior ruling, albeit late in the case, and there was effectively no pertinent arbitration to review. The Court did not reach any other issues on appeal about the arbitration process, such as whether a dismissal for timeliness is an “award” for purposes of confirmation or vacation of an award. The Court of Appeals’ decision affirming the trial court was affirmed.
For a complete list of this month’s summary of published decisions from the Supreme Court, then continue reading.
A complete archive of monthly summaries can be found by clicking here.
[gview file=”http://apps.courts.ky.gov/supreme/casesummaries/March2014.pdf”]
