Century City Medical Plaza v. Sperling, Isaacs & Eisenberg

In Century City Medical Plaza v. Sperling, Isaacs & Eisenberg (2001) 86 Cal.App.4th 865, the court concluded that the doctrine requires the satisfaction of another condition, namely, that the amended award is requested and acted upon within the statutory time limits allowed for correction of an award (as well as any other time limits imposed by applicable rules). (Id. at p. 881) Under Code of Civil Procedure section 1284, a request for a correction of the award must be filed within 10 days after the award is served, and the arbitrator must rule on the request no later than 30 days after the service of the award. The court in Century City Medical Plaza explained: "This condition is not mentioned in A.M. Classic, but we believe it is necessarily required. A judicially endorsed right to modify or amend an award upon proof of an inadvertent omission should not enjoy more generous temporal restrictions than those provided for expressly authorized corrections or modifications under section 1284 . . . or applicable arbitration rules . . . in those cases where the parties have agreed to be bound by such rules." (Century City Medical Plaza, supra, 86 Cal.App.4th at p. 881, fn. 25.) The Court agreed that amendment of an arbitration award to include an issue inadvertently omitted is different from correction of an error. ( Id. at p. 880.) In Century City Medical Plaza, the court concluded the decision in A.M. Classic was "entirely justified," WITH ONE ADDITIONAL CONDITION: The amended or supplemental award must be "requested and acted upon within the time allowed for the correction of an award by either statute or any controlling rules applicable to the arbitration." (Century City Medical Plaza, supra, 86 Cal. App. 4th at p. 881.) The court acknowledged, "This condition is not mentioned in A.M. Classic, but we believe it is necessarily required. A judicially endorsed right to modify or amend an award upon proof of an inadvertent omission should not enjoy more generous temporal restrictions than those provided for expressly authorized corrections or modifications under section 1284 . . . or applicable arbitration rules (see, e.g., AAA rule 48 . . .) in those cases where the parties have agreed to be bound by such rules." (Id. at p. 881, fn. 25.)