Florasynth, Inc. v. Pickholz

Alfred Pickholz (plaintiff) entered an employment contract with Florasynth, Inc. (defendant) to serve as its vice president. The contract included an arbitration provision for dispute resolution using a tripartite arbitration. Pickholz was terminated and disputed commissions he was owed upon departure from Florasynth. Pickholz initiated arbitration. Each party selected an arbitrator, and then the two arbitrators chose a third arbitrator. Florasynth moved to strike Pickholz’s arbitrator. The other two arbitrators declined to decide the issue and resigned, allowing the parties to proceed with a new arbitration. Three new arbitrators were selected. The arbitration was held, and an award was issued in favor of Florasynth. Florasynth sought to confirm the award in district court four months later. Pickholz opposed the motion, arguing that the award should be vacated because the first arbitration panel should not have resigned, and the second panel thus lacked jurisdiction to arbitrate the dispute or issue an award. The district court upheld the arbitration award, holding that Pickholz’s challenge to the award was barred because it was past the three-month statute of limitations of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The court indicated that New York legislation, which allowed parties to challenge arbitration awards regardless of timing through opposition to a motion to confirm, was not applicable.