VERZURA CONSTRUCTION, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
SURFSIDE OCEAN, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1998-03-25
No. 96-1932
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and COPE and GREEN, JJ.
708 So. 2d 994 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1998) Positive Treatment
Cited by 26 cases

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Holding

The court held that Verzura's challenge to the arbitration panel's factual finding that its liens were fraudulent was not a valid ground for vacating the award under the Florida Arbitration Code, and the lower court correctly confirmed the award.


Headnotes

[1] Judicial review of arbitration awards is limited to statutory grounds, and factual or legal errors by the arbitrator are not sufficient to vacate an award.

[2] An arbitration award is considered final and conclusive unless the arbitrators are guilty of misconduct as enumerated in the statute governing arbitration.

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Facts & Procedural History

Verzura Construction and Surfside Ocean entered into a contract with an arbitration clause. After Surfside terminated Verzura, Verzura filed a lien an…

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Opinion of the Court
GREEN, Judge.

GREEN, Judge.

Verzura Construction, Inc. (“Verzura”) appeals an" order confirming an arbitration award and final judgment entered pursuant thereto and in favor of Surfside Ocean, Inc. (“Surfside”). We affirm.

In 1993, Verzura, a contractor, entered into a written agreement with Surfside for the improvement of certain real property owned by Surfside. This agreement contained an arbitration provision clause for the resolution of disputes between these parties. After Verzura had performed under the contract, Surfside terminated Verzura. Within ninety days, Verzura made demand for payment and filed a claim of lien for over $400,-000.00. An amended lien for one million dollars was subsequently filed by Verzura. Surfside commenced this litigation when it filed a complaint seeking damages for a fraudulent lien, slander of title, interference with advantageous business relationships and civil theft. Verzura then filed a separate lawsuit seeking to foreclose on its lien and for breach of contract. Verzura then moved to dismiss Surfside’s action or, in the alternative, to compel arbitration in accordance with the arbitration clause in the contract. The court ordered both actions to arbitration.

After both of these actions were arbitrated, the arbitration panel entered its award on December 21,1995. The panel awarded Ver-zura $37,580.00 as damages for its breach of contract claim,.but found Verzura’s liens to be fraudulent. Prior to a confirmation of this award, Verzura sought an appeal of the panel’s decision to the appellate division of the eleventh judicial circuit. This appeal was subsequently dismissed by the court for lack of jurisdiction.1

Thereafter, Surfside filed its motion to confirm the arbitration award and for entry of final judgment by the lower court. On April 26, 1996, the court confirmed the findings of the arbitration panel by entering a final judgment in favor of Verzura for $37,-580.00 and by discharging Verzura’s claim of lien as fraudulent. Verzura’s subsequent motion for rehearing was denied.

On this appeal, Verzura maintains that the arbitration panel’s determination that its lien and amended claim of lien were fraudulent, was wrong and that the lower court accordingly erred in confirming this award. Surfside counters that a party seeking to challenge any matters before an arbitration panel must do so within ninety days of the award and that any such challenge is limited to the statutory grounds specifically enumerated in section 682.13, Florida Statutes (1993). Thus, because Verzura’s challenge is to a factual and/or legal conclusion of the panel which is not a cognizable statutory ground for vacating the award, the lower court correctly confirmed the award.

Florida Arbitration Code sections 682.01-682.22 (1993), which govern this arbitration dispute specifically permit any party to move to vacate, modify or correct any award when:

(a) The award was procured by corruption, fraud or other undue means.

(b) There was evident partiality by an arbitrator ... or corruption ... or misconduct prejudicing the rights of any party.

(c) The arbitrators ... in the course of his jurisdiction exceeded their powers.

(d) The arbitrators ... refused to postpone the hearing upon sufficient cause being shown thereof or refused to hear evidence material to the controversy or otherwise so conducted the hearing, contrary to the provisions of s. 682.06, as to prejudice substantially the rights of a party.

(e) There was no agreement or provision for arbitration subject to law, ... unless the party participated in the arbitration hearing without raising the objection.

§ 682.13, Fla. Stat. (1993). These are the sole grounds upon which an arbitration award may be challenged. See Packard v. Ripple, 531 So. 2d 991, 991 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988). Rather than timely asserting a challenge to the panel’s award based upon one or more of these statutory grounds, Verzura has untimely attempted to vacate the factual and/or legal determination of the panel that its liens were fraudulent. In City of West Palm Beach v. Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Ass’n, 387 So. 2d 533, 534 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980), the court reasoned:

The standard of judicial review applicable to challenges of awards made by arbitrators is very limited and “a high degree of conclusiveness attaches to an arbitration award because the parties themselves have chosen to go this route in order to avoid the expense and delay of litigation .... The arbitrator is the sole and final judge of the evidence and the weight to be given it.”

Id. (citing Affiliated Marketing, Inc. v. Dyco Chem. & Coatings, Inc., 340 So. 2d 1240, 1242 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976)). The law is clear that awards made by arbitration panels cannot be set aside for mere errors of judgment either as to the law or as to the facts; if the award is within the scope of the submission, and the arbitrators are not guilty of the acts of misconduct set forth in the statute, the award operates as a final and conclusive judgment. See Schnurmacher Holding, Inc. v. Noriega, 542 So. 2d 1327, 1328 (Fla.1989); Service Station Aid, Inc. v. Turnberry Assocs., 629 So. 2d 204, 204 (Fla. 3d DCA 1993), review granted, 639 So. 2d 983 (Fla.1994), aff'd, 651 So. 2d 1173 (Fla.1995); Keyes Co. v. Gomez, 590 So. 2d 954, 955 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991); Packard, 531 So. 2d at 991. Indeed, the arbitration code itself specifically provides that the fact that the relief [granted by the panel] was such that it could not or would not be granted by a court of law or equity is not ground for vacating or refusing to confirm the award. § 682.13(l)(e), Fla. Stat. (1997). Thus, in the absence of any timely challenge to this award based upon the enumerated statutory grounds, the lower court’s confirmation of the arbitration award must be upheld.

Affirmed.

. Verzura subsequently filed an appeal in this court to review the dismissal of its appeal in the circuit court. Verzura then amended its appeal to include the subsequent denial of its motion to vacate the arbitration award. This court treated the first notice of appeal as a petition for writ of certiorari and summarily denied the same but allowed the appeal of the order confirming the arbitration award to proceed.


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Citator

Cited By (13 total)

  • Jaylene, Inc. v. Steuer, 22 So. 3d 711 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009)
    …limit appears elsewhere in the underlying contract, an arbitration award inconsistent with the limitation arguably would be a mere legal error, unreviewable on a motion to vacate under the statute. See Verzura Constr., Inc. v. Surfside Ocean, Inc., 708 So. 2d 994 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998) (noting bar to setting aside arbitration award for error as to law or fact). Perhaps most troubling of all would be a scenario in which the arbitrator’s award is consistent with a contractual liability limitation that would be une…
  • Cassedy v. Merrill Lynch, 751 So. 2d 143 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000)
    …of litigation. See Applewhite v. Sheen Financial Resources, Inc., 608 So. 2d 80, 83 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992). The arbitrators are the sole and final judges of the evidence and the weight to be given it. See Verzura Constr., Inc. v. Surfside Ocean, Inc., 708 So. 2d 994 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998) (citing City of West Palm Beach v. Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Ass’n, 387 So. 2d 533, 534 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980)). [*151] The result reached by the trial court here, and by the Fourth District in Blair, sets the stage for two…
  • …1986). Because the arbitration award in favor of North Florida Surgeons was within the arbitrators’ authority, the award operates as a final and conclusive judgment. See Charbonneau, 727 So. 2d at 1020; Verzura Constr., Inc. v. Surfside Ocean, Inc., 708 So. 2d 994, 996 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998). The trial court therefore departed from the essential requirements of law when it vacated the arbitration award. See Fuller v. Truncale, 50 So. 3d 25, 27 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010), review denied, 59 So. 3d 110 (Fla.2011) (“To demo…

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