Prominent California winery challenges arbitration award in California Court of Appeal

Client(s) California winery

Jones Day represents a prominent California winery in an appeal to the California Court of Appeal, First District, challenging an arbitration award of over $25 million to two former employees. Jones Day entered the case on appeal after a California trial court entered judgment confirming the award. On appeal, the winery seeks to have the arbitration award vacated on the ground that that the arbitrator exceeded his contractual authority by declining to apply an applicable statute of limitations in the face of the parties' adoption of a provision stipulating that the arbitration would be decided based on the rules of law rather than the arbitrator's unconstrained sense of justice and equity. The trial court erred, Jones Day contended, by failing to enforce the contractual limits on the arbitrator's authority. Meir Feder, a partner in the New York office, argued the case before the California Court of Appeal.