DEEB, INC., APPELLANT,
v.
THE BOARD OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, FLORIDA, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
In this interlocutory appeal, the First District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's modification of a final decree in a construction contract dispute to clarify that an arbitration award settled only matters specifically submitted to arbitration, not all matters arising before the award date. The court rejected an overly broad reading of the arbitration settlement that would have lacked legal foundation.
The trial court did not abuse its discretion in amending the final decree. The original provision containing the date limitation had no legal basis, as arbitrators under the Florida Arbitration Code have no power to determine matters not specifically submitted by the parties. The modified language correctly limiting the award's effect to only the matters submitted to arbitration was legally sound and appropriate.
“Under the Florida Arbitration Code the arbitrators had no power or jurisdiction to determine matters not submitted to them by the parties and the court, so any matters not so submitted could not be legally settled by the arbitration award.”
Establishes the core legal principle that arbitrators' authority is limited to matters specifically submitted by the parties, invalidating the original decree's temporal language.
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceDeeb, Inc. and the Board of Public Instruction of Columbia County entered into a construction contract dispute. Both parties executed a submission to …
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Arbitrator'S Jurisdiction cases and more on FLexlaw
The defendant in an action on a construction contract has taken this interlocutory appeal from an order amending a final decree, entered by the Circuit Court for Columbia County, amending the decree with regard to the matters settled by an arbitration award.
The question presented for our determination in this interlocutory appeal is whether the Circuit Court abused its discretion in amending its final decree.
During the course of this litigation both parties thereto executed and filed in the cause, pursuant to the provisions of the Florida Arbitration Code, Chapter 57, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., a “submission to arbitration,” submitting a list of items, connected with the performance under the said construction, which they desired to be determined by a board of arbitrators named by the parties. The court duly appointed the named persons to arbitrate the items thus submitted by the parties. After holding the required hearing, the said board of arbitrators made its award in a letter to the parties dated February 14, 1966, requiring the contractor, the defendant, to accomplish certain enumerated items and, as to all other items in dispute, resolving those matters by crediting a certain sum to the plaintiff, the owner, against the said contract.
The plaintiff then filed a motion to confirm the arbitrators’ award, which motion was granted by an order of the court. Later the plaintiff filed a motion for a final decree affirming the said order confirming the said award.
In its final decree the court granted the last-mentioned motion and adjudged that the said arbitrators’ award shall be “the order of this court.” The decree, however, also contained the following provision :
“The Arbitrators’ Award settles all matters between the parties up to and including February 14, 1966. Any controversies as may exist between the parties since February 14, 1966, are not affected by this Order.”
The plaintiff then filed a petition to modify the final decree by deleting therefrom the above-quoted provision, on the grounds that the language of the said provision is vague and indefinite and that the said language “does not take into consideration and limit the Order to the matters specifically submitted to arbitration by the parties in their Agreement to Arbitrate.”
In the order appealed from herein the court granted the plaintiff’s said petition and modified the said final decree by deleting the provision quoted above from that decree and substituting in lieu thereof the following:
“The Arbitrators’ Award settles all matters between the parties submitted to arbitration by the Agreement to Arbitrate.”
We think that the court wisely made the said substitution. There was no legal basis for holding in the deleted provision that the arbitrators’ award settled all matters between the parties up to and including Feburary 14, 1966 (the date of the said award). Under the Florida Arbitration Code the arbitrators had no power or jurisdiction to determine matters not submitted to them by the parties and the court, so any matters not so submitted could not be legally settled .by the arbitration award. If this were not so, the arbitration procedure would likely be unworkable or hazardous, if not unconstitutional.
Accordingly, we hold that the Circuit Court was eminently correct in entering the order appealed from herein and that, pursuant to subdivision c of Rule 4.2 of the Florida Appellate Rules, 32 F.S.A., *462this interlocutory appeal should be, and it is
Dismissed.
CARROLL, DONALD K., Acting Chief Judge, RAWLS and SPECTOR, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Ehrhart v. Raymond James & Assocs., Inc., 536 So. 2d 1178 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989)…hat it was defendant’s prerogative to go back to the trial court with the claim for those damages. Matters not arbitrated and not permitted to be submitted to arbitration are not resolved by the arbitration. See Deeb v. Board of Public Instruction, 208 So. 2d 460 (Fla. 1st DCA 1968). REVERSED AND REMANDED FOR PROCEEDINGS NOT INCONSISTENT HEREWITH. SCHEB, A.C.J., and HALL, J., concur.…
-
Paid Prescriptions, Inc. v. Dep't OF Health & Rehabilitative Servs., 350 So. 2d 100 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977)…tt-Chapman & Scott Corp. v. State Road Dept., 98 So. 2d 85 (Fla.1957). Subsequent to the present arbitration code, this Court has affirmed arbitration awards involving a state agency. See Deeb, Inc. v. Board of Public Instruction of Columbia County, 208 So. 2d 460 (Fla. 1 DCA 1968); Edward M. Fleming Construction Co. v. Board of Regents, 265 So. 2d 52 (Fla. 1 DCA 1972). Also under the present code our sister court of the Second District Court of Appeal in Bartke’s, Inc. v. Hillsborough County Aviation Authori…