Matter of Meehan v. Nassau Community Coll

In Matter of Meehan v. Nassau Community Coll., (243 AD2d 12 [2d Dept 1998]), in a tripartite arbitration, a party-designated arbitrator with personal knowledge of facts was permitted to reveal his knowledge to the other arbitrators and testify to such facts during the hearing. The Court specifically held that "given that a party-designated arbitrator may in fact be 'partial', [his] participation in the arbitration proceedings in the dual capacity of arbitrator and witness may serve as a basis for vacatur only if his behavior in this regard can be properly categorized as constituting 'corruption, fraud or misconduct' (CPLR 7511 [b] [1] [i])." (243 AD2d at 18.) The Court continued: "It is established that an arbitrator's having personal knowledge of the subject of controversy does not constitute misconduct in and of itself" (243 AD2d at 18] ). Central to the analysis used by the Meehan court was the principle that "an arbitrator's award may be vacated only upon the grounds specified in the statute . . . and that, if the party moving to vacate cannot establish one of the statutory grounds, the award must be confirmed" (243 AD2d at 17).