Vacatur Warranted Due to Arbitrator’s Failure to Disclose Involvement in Previous Proceeding, Yosemite Maintains

NEW YORK — An arbitrator’s failure to disclose his involvement in a previous arbitration proceeding warrants vacatur of an award, Yosemite Insurance Co. contends, because both proceedings involved the same reinsurance treaty program and the arbitrator possibly felt antipathy toward Yosemite due to his previous adversarial encounter with the insurer.

In a Sept. 15 brief filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Yosemite asserts that it was never given a chance to investigate the arbitrator’s undisclosed conflict.

Yosemite insured the State of California under an excess liability policy that covered the Stringfellow waste site. …