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Sheehan v. Nationwide Insurance Co.

Denial of petition to vacate arbitration award affirmed because there was no evidence that the neutral arbitrator was not impartial and disinterested where his contact with defendant had occurred over 23 years before when the arbitrator was an associate in a law firm.

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� 1 This is an appeal from the denial of a petition to vacate an arbitration award which was sought on the basis that one of the arbitrators should have recused because of a prior relationship with one of the parties. We affirm.

� 2 The trial court recounted the undisputed facts of this case:

The parties appointed arbitrators to resolve issues of underinsured motorist coverage pursuant to the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law, 75 Pa.C.S.A. � 1701 et seq. The insurance policy which covered this claim was issued by Nationwide, and contained an endorsement which states, “The arbitration shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Pennsylvania Arbitration Act of 1927.” The arbitrators, following a hearing, entered an award in favor of the carrier. The plaintiff’s counsel learned of the content of the award, apparently from the arbitrator he had appointed, before the award was actually served and, at about the same time, learned that the neutral arbitrator Peter A. Dunn, Esquire, ha[d] once represented Nationwide [I]nsurance, many years before. Based on this plaintiff’s counsel wrote Mr. Dunn asking that he vacate the as yet unpublished award and withdraw as neutral arbitrator. Mr. Dunn responded by circulating the formal arbitration award and including, in the cover letter, an explanation that he had only done work for Nationwide as an associate in a firm, and that his last act of representing them had been in 1977. He stated that it never even occurred to him that a disclosure of this, “would be relevant or required.” Trial Court Opinion, 12/29/00, at 2.

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