Goodwin

Filed 12/15/

CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FOUR

MARK GOODWIN,

Plaintiff and Appellant,

A160909

v. COMERICA BANK, N.A., (Alameda County Super. Ct. No. RG17855144) Defendant and Respondent

Mark Goodwin appeals two concurrent orders denying his petition to confirm an arbitration award and granting Comerica Bank’s (the bank) petition to vacate the award on the ground that the arbitrator made a material omission or misrepresentation in his disclosure of prior cases involving the parties’ lawyers. (See Code Civ. Proc.,1 § 1281.9.) The disclosure described a prior case involving Goodwin’s lawyers as “settled prior to final award” without disclosing that the case had settled after the arbitrator issued an interim award in favor of the client of Goodwin’s lawyer. On appeal, the parties debate whether section 1281.9 required the arbitrator to disclose the interim award and whether the omission was sufficiently material to require vacation of the award. We need not decide those questions because the bank forfeited any right to disqualify the arbitrator on that basis by…