Virginia Supreme Court Shocking Decision Which Does Not Recognize Public Policy As Ground To Vacate Arbitration Award

On June 8, 2007, in a 7-0 decision, the Supreme Court of Virginia in BBF v. Alstom Power, Inc., ___S.E. 2d ___, 2007 WL 1651208 (registration required), held that an arbitration award will not be vacated if it violates public policy. The court reasoned that Virgina's Uniform Arbitration Act provides the exclusive grounds for vacating an award and public policy is not one of them. Unfortunately, the opinion is quite short (less than 4 pages) and not particularly well reasoned or written.

This decision is shocking to me as I regularly litigate claims of public policy violations with respect to arbitration awards under New York law. Federal law also recognizes that an award that violates  public policy violation will not be enforced. (Misco case)

The battle in all of these New York and federal cases is whether the dispute actually violates a public policy. However, in Virgina, there can be no such battle as such claims are not viable.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein