Gerald Richard v. Steven Robinson

Outcome

Excerpt

The defendant, Steven Robinson, appealed from an order of the Superior Court that denied his motion to confirm an arbitration award issued in his favor in court-annexed arbitration. Although the plaintiff, Gerald Richard, filed a timely rejection of the arbitration award, his initial electronically submitted filing was rejected because he had used an incorrect filing code. When the statutory period for filing a rejection expired, the defendant filed a motion to confirm the award. Soon thereafter, the plaintiff corrected his initial filing. The Superior Court denied defendant's motion to confirm the arbitration award. On appeal, the Supreme Court noted that an improper code is not a sufficient reason for rejecting an electronic filing in an arbitration case, but noted that plaintiff had not challenged the procedures used to reject his filing in this case. The Court held that Article X, Rule 5(c) of the Supreme Court Rules Governing Electronic Filing directs that, if an electronically submitted filing is rejected, a corrected filing will relate back to the date of the original filing if made "promptly." The Court further held that a determination of whether a correction was made promptly is within the sound discretion of the trial justice, and the Court's review of such a determination is limited to whether the trial justice abused his or her discretion. The Court discerned no abuse of discretion in this case and affirmed the order of the Superior Court.