A Case Of First Impression.
Unless you practice in this area, you may not know that in an uninsured motorist arbitration between the motorist with uninsured motorist coverage and her insurance company, discovery disputes are addressed to the court, not to the arbitrator. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Cora Robinson, A158467 (1/1 3/14/22) (Humes, Margulies, Banke). "The question of first impression here is whether trial court discovery orders in these proceedings are reviewable on appeal from a judgment confirming the arbitration award. We hold that they are not."
The bases for vacating a judgment are found in California Code of Civ. Proc. ยง 1286.2 (vacatur). And unhappiness with the trial judge's discovery order is not among the bases. Here, the insured argued that 1286.2(a)(4) provided a reason for vacatur. That section allows vacatur when the arbitrator exceeded the arbitrator's power, and the award cannot be corrected without affecting the merits of the decision. However, the insured's complaint here was not addressed to the arbitrator, but rather to the judge's discovery order. So there was no statutory route for vacating the arbitrator's decision.
The insured alternatively argued that her appeal should be considered as a writ. But that was not possible, once a judgment had already been rendered.
COMMENT: Suppose the arbitrator, rather than the judge, had issued a discovery order, as arbitrators routinely do in other types of proceedings. How easy would it be to attack the arbitrator's order in an appeal of a judgment confirming the award? Not easy. The arbitrator's discovery order would be scrutinized under the same standard as the award, and awards are not set aside just because the arbitrator makes a mistake of law or fact.
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