Opinion
2002-11010.
December 22, 2003.
In a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 75 to vacate an arbitration award, the appeal is from an order of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Barone, J.), entered October 24, 2002, which, inter alia, granted the petition and denied the appellant's motion to dismiss the proceeding.
Gogick, Byrne O'Neill, LLP, New York, N.Y. (William D. Broderick of counsel), for appellant.
LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene MacRae, LLP, New York, N.Y. (Steven Levitsky of counsel), for respondent.
Before: GLORIA GOLDSTEIN and STEPHEN G. CRANE, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, the motion is granted, the petition is denied, and the proceeding is dismissed.
The petitioner waived her right to object to the arbitration award on the ground that the arbitrator did not take the oath required under CPLR 7506(a) by participating in the arbitration proceeding without demanding that the arbitrator take the oath ( see CPLR 7506[f]; Matter of Penn Cent. Corp., 56 N.Y.2d 120, 127; Wally v. Cameron Indus., 179 A.D.2d 548; Lebis Contr. v. City of Lockport, 174 A.D.2d 1012; Matter of Institute of Intl. Educ., 118 A.D.2d 433, 435-436; Morgan Guar. Trust Co. of N.Y. v. Solow, 114 A.D.2d 818, 822, affd 68 N.Y.2d 779).
Although the petitioner admittedly was aware of the arbitrator's alleged bias ( see CPLR 7511[b][ii]) prior to the hearing, she waived this claim by continuing to participate in the proceeding ( see Matter of Arner v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 233 A.D.2d 321; Matter of James A. Smith Contr. v. Stahl, 162 A.D.2d 688, 689; Matter of Lincoln Graphic Arts v. Rohta/New Century Communications, 160 A.D.2d 871, 872; cf. Matter of Siegel, 40 N.Y.2d 687, 690-691).
"An arbitration award should not be vacated unless it is violative of a strong public policy, is totally irrational, or clearly exceeds a specifically enumerated limitation on the arbitrator's power. * * * Moreover, arbitrators do not have to justify their awards. It must merely be evident upon a reading of the record that there exists a rational basis for the award" ( Matter of Salco Constr. Co. v. Lasberg Constr. Assocs., 249 A.D.2d 309, 310). The record establishes that the award was supported by a rational basis ( cf. Caso v. Coffey, 41 N.Y.2d 153, 158).
The petitioner's remaining contentions are without merit.
ALTMAN, J.P., S. MILLER, GOLDSTEIN and CRANE, JJ., concur.