Shahinian

SUMMARY

The trial court granted a petition by Hrayr Shahinian (plaintiff or Shahinian), a physician then on the medical staff at defendant Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, to confirm an arbitration award in his favor. The arbitrator awarded plaintiff $508,124 in economic damages, $1,603,650 in emotional distress damages, and $2.58 million in punitive damages. The award also was deemed a voluntary withdrawal by plaintiff of medical staff membership and privileges at Cedars-Sinai.

Defendant appeals, claiming the award violated public policy and therefore exceeded the arbitrator’s powers. Defendant asserts that, because the arbitrator found that defendant summarily suspended and substantially restricted plaintiff’s clinical privileges without affording him a fair hearing, public policy required the arbitrator to order defendant to conduct a peer review hearing, rather than award damages against defendant. The arbitrator also *992 exceeded her powers, defendant claims, by applying a “strictly mechanical” doubling formula to determine the amount of emotional distress damages, and by awarding punitive damages in an amount that “exceeded both contractual and public policy…