"So Torah law is only good when you win?! When you lose, you come to me in civil court to have it overturned?!"
With these words and great anger, the district court judge opened a hearing, in which I represented the winning party in the arbitration in court - a companion to the hearing who had not repaid the loan.
After the shower of power that came from the party seeking to annul the arbitration award, as well as the executor and the bringer of the case on behalf of the meeting who was present at the hearing, we turned to the substantive hearing. In this case, the arbitration award was not annulled, however, the award was not annulled not in view of the substantive award - which in my opinion was correct - but in view of the conduct of the court that issued the award.
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The conduct of the tribunal/arbitrators during the hearing and of the parties to it is critical to the non-revocation of an arbitration award, and we will expand on this below.
As a general rule, an arbitration award in itself is not enforceable in civil law and must undergo a process and receive "validation" in order to be enforceable. In order to enforce an arbitration award, the party seeking enforcement must file a "Request for Approval of Arbitration Award" with the District Court (and this article does not go into which district court - in which city it should be filed). Only after the District Court approves the arbitration award, is it considered a judgment of the court and can it now be enforced within the framework of execution.
You can also request the annulment of an arbitration award.
However, there is also the option to annul the arbitration award, and this is submitted to the District Court as a "motion to annul an arbitration award" and not as an objection to a motion to confirm the award. The deadline for submitting the motion to annul is within 45 days from the date the arbitrator's award is served on the party requesting its annulment.
However, it should be noted that to the extent that a request for confirmation of the ruling has been submitted by one of the parties, the other party may submit a request to cancel the ruling, within 15 days from the date the request for confirmation was served on him, as long as the deadline set by law for submitting the request for cancellation has not passed, that is, 45 days from the date the ruling was served on that party.
That is, to the extent that a request has been submitted to confirm the award - which has no time limit and can be submitted at any time after the arbitral award is rendered - the opposing party is given 15 days to submit a request to cancel it, however, the limit is 45 days from the date the award was rendered, at which time it is no longer possible to submit a request to cancel it.
Thus, the party requesting to annul the ruling must do so no later than 45 days from the date of receipt of the ruling.
One of the "exercises" used to gain a new deadline, in the event that the deadline for submitting a request for cancellation has passed, is an attempt to revive the discussion with various and varied requests.
It is appropriate and necessary to be careful - both the court itself and the opposing party, who must strongly oppose this - not to open the arbitration award for discussion (unless the court believes that it is fundamentally appropriate to do so), in order not to grant a new date for the request to annul it, when in fact the entire purpose of the applicant in opening it is to buy a new date for annulment.
When can an arbitration award be annulled?
The law lists a closed list of grounds, based on which the annulment of the award may be requested, including partial annulment, completion, or return of the award to the arbitrator:
(1) There was no valid arbitration agreement;
(2) The award was made by an arbitrator who was not duly appointed;
(3) The arbitrator acted without authority or exceeded the powers granted to him under the arbitration agreement;
(4) The party to the lawsuit was not given a proper opportunity to present his arguments or evidence;
(5) The arbitrator did not decide on any of the matters submitted to him for decision;
(6) The arbitration agreement stipulated that the arbitrator must give reasons for the award and the arbitrator did not do so;
(7) The arbitration agreement stipulated that the arbitrator must rule in accordance with the law and the arbitrator did not do so;
(8) The ruling was given after the period for its issuance had passed;
(9) The content of the ruling is contrary to public policy;
(10) There is a ground on which a court would overturn a final judgment that is no longer subject to appeal.
It can be observed that most of the grounds - although they deal with substantive issues that may deprive the legitimacy of the procedure at its root - focus on procedural-technical deficiencies and defects, whether they preceded the procedure (such as failure to sign an arbitration agreement) or became apparent during the procedure and/or after it (such as the arbitrator exceeding the powers granted to him).
The power of the devil
I will mention a number of examples that I have encountered over the years, as grounds for a request to annul an arbitration award, but I will not review all the cases and possibilities within the framework of this short article.
For example, a signature on an arbitration agreement/deed by an "authorized person" should not be accepted if he does not have a full civil power of attorney, but rather a "letter" on which someone has scribbled his consent, which he can, but not always, and the civil court will not consider this a valid signature on the arbitration deed.
As for the ground that the arbitrator was not duly appointed - it is worth noting that a party who did not object to this during the hearing and accepted the arbitrator and argued before him, will not be able to request that the arbitration award be annulled on this ground.
One of the main grounds on which parties appeal to annul court rulings is the claim that they were not given the opportunity to present all their evidence. In general, according to Torah law, there is no end to the presentation of evidence, and even after the ruling has been issued, if new evidence exists, it can be reopened. On the other hand, it has already been stated:
"How can I bear your burdens and your burdens and your strife alone?"
""Tarakhem - teaches that there were Israel's Tarakhin. If one of them saw his client defeated in court, he would say, I have witnesses to bring, I have evidence to bring, I will add to you, judges.".
Can the witness have any influence on the proceedings?
Indeed, sometimes it is clear that the entire purpose of bringing additional evidence and witnesses is to delay the hearing or, alternatively, when the court does not allow the bringing of that evidence or witness, this constitutes preparation for a request to annul the arbitration award.
At the same time, it is appropriate to be cautious, to exercise restraint, and to allow the procedure to be carried out in its entirety, so as not to give the losing party a reason to cancel it.
In a parenthetical article, it is stated that the court/arbitrators have the authority not to accept evidence or a witness that is irrelevant, and it is appropriate to do so, when it is clear that there is no merit in that witness or evidence.
In my opinion, the test for irrelevant evidence or a witness is, even if the witness or evidence proves the claim absolutely, whether it has the capacity to influence the proceedings in any way. As a rule, if the answer is positive, they should be accepted, if not - they should be rejected and not allowed to be presented, with a reasoned decision.
Care must also be taken not to conduct a discussion without the opposing party being present. That is, both parties must be present and a separate discussion with each of them must not be allowed at a different time.
As a result, to the extent that there was no procedural defect in the conduct of the procedure and the arbitrator did not exceed the framework of the powers granted to him by law and/or granted to him by the parties, there is a real difficulty in challenging his ruling on the merits of the matter, even if there was a real error in it.
This, of course, is in contrast to a "regular" court ruling, which can usually be appealed to the appellate court.
Therefore, it is especially recommended to strictly adhere to the procedural procedures in the arbitration process before the court and not to take shortcuts or cut corners, since when the loser requests to annul the award, they will side with the winner.
• Adv. Zvi (Tsiki) Wolfson - is the founder and managing partner of the law firm Wolfson Weinstein & Co., and he frequently appears in courts in arbitrations related to the commercial business aspect. www.ww-law.co.il
