Mt. Holyoke Homes, L.P. v. Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, LLP

Mt. Holyoke Homes, L.P. (MHH), and Darla Jones (collectively Plaintiffs) challenge the granting of a motion to compel arbitration and the denial of their motion to vacate the arbitration award in a legal malpractice action against Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, LLP (JMBM), and John Bowman (Defendants). They contend (1) an arbitration provision in the parties’ legal services agreement is unenforceable because it was not adequately disclosed or explained to them; (2) the arbitrator failed to timely disclose his prior relationship with a partner in JMBM, so the award must be vacated; and (3) the trial court erred by overruling their objections to the arbitrator’s declaration filed in opposition to their petition to vacate the award.

We conclude that the arbitration agreement is enforceable and the trial court properly compelled arbitration. We also conclude that the fact that the arbitrator had listed a partner in JMBM as a reference on his resume reasonably could cause an objective observer to doubt his impartiality as an arbitrator, and his failure to timely disclose that fact compels the conclusion that the arbitration award must be vacated. We therefore will reverse…