Delaware Business Litigation Report

Court of Chancery Gives Arbitration Award Finality

Country Life Homes Inc. v. Shaffer, C.A. No. 2288-S (Del. Ch. January 31, 2007).

It is sometimes asked if an arbitration award really has the finality of res judicata. This decision holds that the first arbitration award in a dispute is a final award that bars any later arbitration award by another tribunal.  The Court did permit the party opposing the first award to contest the jurisdiction of that arbitrator. When that challenge failed, so did that party's case.

The case is unusual in that it involved two different arbitration panels under two contracts that both applied to the dispute in question. Moreover, after losing the first arbitration, the losing party there prevailed in the second arbitration over the same basic dispute but before a different arbitration panel. Share