Keiser v. County of Berks

Citations

• 253 Pa. 167
• 97 A. 1067
• 1916 Pa. LEXIS 805

Syllabus

<p>Contracts — Arbitration—Oral agreement to submit to award.</p> <p>1. An agreement to submit to an award of arbitrators must be mutual and must show a clear intent to submit the matter in dispute to a tribunal and to be bound by its decision; and the person asserting such agreement has the burden upon him to establish by proof its existence, and when such agreement is alleged to have been by parol it must be established by the preponderance of the evidence.</p> <p>2. In an action to recover the amount of an alleged award of arbitrators it appeared that plaintiff’s property had been injured by a change of grade of a county bridge; that a parol proposition was made by plaintiff to the county commissioners that he should be paid the cost of raising the building to the new grade in lieu of damages, and that arbitrators should be appointed to ascertain such cost; that the commissioners and plaintiff appointed arbitrators who rendered the award upon which the action was brought. Plaintiff testified that neither he nor the commissioners had ever agreed that the amount of money the arbitrators should determine to be the cost of raising the building should be paid by the commissioners, and there was no other proof of any proposition to submit the amount of damages to the arbitrators for determination. The jury found a verdict for defendant, upon which judgment was entered. Held, no error.</p>