David DiSano v. Argonaut Insurance Company

Citations

• 178 A.3d 982

Syllabus

The plaintiff, David DiSano (DiSano), appealed from a Superior Court order that denied his petition to vacate an arbitration award and granted the petition brought by the defendant, Argonaut Insurance Company (Argonaut), to confirm the arbitration award, and its motion to quash the deposition subpoena of the dissenting arbitrator. DiSano argued that the arbitration award was irrational because the arbitrators, who found in favor of Argonaut, improperly calculated the offset amount to which Argonaut was entitled. Specifically, he maintained that it was error for the arbitrators to use the amount of workers' compensation benefits that he received for his hip replacement surgery to calculate the offset amount, because the majority had found that the hip replacement surgery was not causally related to the car accident that was the subject of the arbitration. On appeal, the Supreme Court held that the hearing justice appropriately denied DiSano's petition to vacate the arbitration award. It concluded that the arbitrators did not imperfectly execute their powers in calculating the offset amount. Further, the Supreme Court held that, even if the arbitrators did err, an arbitration award would not be overturned for mere errors of law. The Court deemed waived DiSano's challenge to the grant of Argnoaut's motion to quash. Accordingly, it affirmed the Superior Court's decision to deny the petition to vacate the arbitration award and to grant the petition to confirm the arbitration award and the motion to quash the deposition subpoena of the dissenting arbitrator.