Greater Nanticoke Area School District v. Greater Nanticoke Area Education Association

In Greater Nanticoke Area School District v. Greater Nanticoke Area Education Association, 760 A.2d 1214 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2000), the Court noted that an arbitrator could use extrinsic evidence to determine the parties' intent even where the CBA language in dispute is unambiguous. In the arbitration context the distinction between ambiguous and unambiguous contracts is of no evidentiary significance. To ... imply that the standard of review of an arbitrator's interpretation of a collective bargaining agreement turns on the common law question of whether the agreement is 'ambiguous' and therefore to be interpreted by the finder-of-fact (jury) or 'unambiguous' and to be interpreted by the court ... is not the correct approach. The division effected by the common law between ambiguous writings (interpreted by the jury) and unambiguous writings (interpreted by the court as a "question of law") is logically inapplicable to interpretation questions which arise in arbitration. To state the matter more precisely, where a task of an arbitrator ... has been to determine the intention of the contracting parties as evidenced by their collective bargaining agreement and the circumstances surrounding its execution, then the arbitrator's award is based on a resolution of a question of fact and is to be respected by the judiciary if 'the interpretation can in any rational way be derived from the agreement, viewed in light of its language, its context, and any other indicia of the parties intention . ...' 473 Pa. at 592-94, 375 A.2d at 1274-75 (quoting Ludwig Honold Mfg., 405 F.2d at 1128). (Emphasis in original) In other words, while the common law of contracts allows the factfinder to consider all evidence relevant to the determination of the parties' intent only if the court has found the contract language to be ambiguous, the evidence properly considered by the arbitrator as factfinder is not so limited. Greater Nanticoke Area School District, 760 A.2d at 1217-18;