In re Resolute Paper Products Corp.

160 Misc. 722, 290 N.Y.S. 87, 1936 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1274
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJune 23, 1936
StatusPublished

This text of 160 Misc. 722 (In re Resolute Paper Products Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Resolute Paper Products Corp., 160 Misc. 722, 290 N.Y.S. 87, 1936 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1274 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1936).

Opinion

Valerte, J.

This is a motion to confirm an award in arbitration, following a submission of the controversy under the Civil Practice Act (§ 1448 et seq.). The chief objection to the confirmation is that the submission does not contain a provision for judgment. Section 1449 of the Civil Practice Act reads as follows: “A submission * * * shall be in writing, duly acknowledged or proved, and certified, in like manner as a deed to be recorded. The submission may provide that a judgment of a specified court of record shall be rendered upon the award made pursuant to the submission, If the Supreme Court is thus specified, the submission may also specify the county in which the judgment shall be entered. If it does not, tk@ judgment may be entered in any county.” Respondent agrees that one of the technical requirements of the submission has not been met in that no provision for judgment is contained in it as required by statute. Respondent does not claim that this alone makes the award void, but it denies the right of petitioner to a summary judgment under such circumstances, and maintains that its only recovery is to bring an action as upon a common-law award.

In order to understand respondent’s position and the old authority which it uses in support of its position it is necessary to make some reference to the history of arbitration in this State. Arbitration existed at common law and it was early recognized by the statutes of this State. While the courts regarded as against public policy the attempt to oust them from jurisdiction of the consideration of future disputes which might arise, they did not so regard submissions to arbitration of pending controversies. As is said in Fudickar v. Guardian Mutual Life Ins. Co. (62 N. Y. 392, 399): The jealousy with which, at one time, courts regarded the withdrawal of controversies from their jurisdiction by the agreement of parties, has yielded to a more sensible view, and arbitrations are now encouraged as an easy, expeditious and inexpensive method of settling disputes, and as tending to prevent litigation.” While informal arbitrations were recognized under the common law, at least after they had terminated by an award, it was still necessary to bring an action upon it by the successful party in order to obtain judgment on it. To make the remedy in submissions to arbitration more easy to obtain, a statutory Code dealing with arbitration was enacted as; early as 1791. It is found in 1 Revised Laws, 1813, page 126. It is made lawful for parties to agree that “ submission of their suit or controversy to the award * * * should be made a rule of any court of record in this State, which the parties shall choose.” This statute was considerably revised and elaborated upon in 2 Revised Statutes, page 541. That statute provided that parties “ may submit ” a pending controversy to arbitration and “ may agree that a [724]*724judgment of any court of law and of record * * * shall be rendered upon the award.” (§ 1.) The statute contains a number of sections, most of which in substance are now embodied in the Civil Practice Act (§ 1448 et seq.). Section 8 of the arbitration statute (2 R. S. p. 542) reads as follows: “ To entitle any award to be enforced according to the provisions of this Title, it must be in writing, subscribed by the arbitrators making the same, and attested by a subscribing witness.”

Section 9 provides: “ Upon such submission being proved by the affidavit of a subscribing witness thereto * * * the court designated in such submission shall, by rule, in open court, confirm such award.”

Since the Civil Practice Act makes a similar reference to a designation of a court in the submission, it may be helpful to refer to the early cases in order to decide whether the designation of the court is a jurisdictional' requirement in order to constitute a statutory submission. Respondent, taking the view that such a statement in the submission was necessary, quotes from French v. New (20 Barb. 481,486). In that case, as a defense to a suit to recover rent, defendant interposed a defense that arbitration had been had pursuant to a written agreement. The opinion of the court contains a reference to the question that is under consideration here: “ It was probably the intention of the parties in this case that the arbitration should be under the statute. (2 R. S. 541, § 1 et seq.) This is pretty evident from the concluding clause in the submission bonds, providing that all matters in controversy between the parties should be finally concluded ‘ pursuant to the provisions of the statute for determining controversies by arbitration.’ And yet there was no clause in the submission agreeing that a judgment should be entered in a summary manner upon the award to be made in pursuance of the submission, as is required by the section just quoted. This was held to be necessary by the Court of Errors, in the case of Wells v. Lane (15 Wend. 99). And the chancellor, in Bloomer v. Sherman (5 Paige, 575, 578), intimates that such was the opinion of the court in a former case, though he differed from a majority of the court. * * * We must follow, however, the decision of the Court of Errors, and hold, with that court, that this was not a submission under the statute.” The difficulty with that case is that it was reversed. (French v. New, 28 N. Y. 147.) While the reversal made no reference to the dictum below that a submission agreement must contain a clause that a judgment might be entered in a summary manner, nevertheless, that statement as dictum in a reversed opinion can have very little authority. Moreover, it is doubtful whether that old case draws a correct inference from either [725]*725Wells v. Lane (15 Wend. 99) or Bloomer v. Sherman (5 Paige, 575, 578), cited by it.

French v. New (supra), relied upon by respondent, does not decide on its own reasoning that written submission under the Revised Statutes required the incorporation of the provision in question, but solely on what it deems the authority of the Court of Errors in Wells v. Lane, and what it cites as the opinion of the chancellor in Bloomer v. Sherman, that the Court of Errors so ruled in the Wells case. Both these propositions are erroneous, as an examination of the cases will show.

In Wells v. Lane there was a divided court. The views of the chancellor are a minority opinion. It is in that opinion that an intimation is found, and only an intimation, that the submission must contain the reference to the entry of a judgment.

And in Bloomer v. Sherman, too, the chancellor does not say that Weils v. Lane holds the doctrine which is attributed to it in French v. New. What he says is that some of the members of the Court for the Correction of Errors ” hold such a view. His own views are thus given at page 578 of 5 Paige: It is insisted by the complainant’s counsel, that none of the provisions of the Revised Statutes relative to arbitrations are applicable to any submission to arbitration, except in those cases where the parties have, in their submission, agreed that a judgment shall be entered, in a summary manner, upon the award which may be made in pursuance of such submission.

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Related

French v. . New
28 N.Y. 147 (New York Court of Appeals, 1863)
Fudickar v. . Guardian Mutual Life Ins. Co.
62 N.Y. 392 (New York Court of Appeals, 1875)
In re Yeannakopoulos
195 A.D. 261 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1921)
In re Colwell Worsted Mills
228 A.D. 150 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1930)
French v. New
20 Barb. 481 (New York Supreme Court, 1855)
Bloomer v. Sherman
5 Paige Ch. 575 (New York Court of Chancery, 1836)
Wells v. Lane
15 Wend. 99 (Court for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors, 1835)

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Bluebook (online)
160 Misc. 722, 290 N.Y.S. 87, 1936 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1274, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-resolute-paper-products-corp-nysupct-1936.