Countrywide Fin. Corp. v. Bundy

Countrywide Fin. Corp. v. Bundy, B215912, concerned a challenge to the trial court's order vacating the partial arbitration awards against Countrywide Financial Corporation on the ground that the arbitrator committed a number of legal errors, in defendants' arbitration demands on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated against Countrywide and its wholly owned subsidiary, seeking classwide arbitration claims for unpaid wages and other related claims.

In reversing, the court held that, because the parties unambiguously agreed that any award would be reviewed as it would be by a federal district judge applying the Federal Arbitration Act, the partial awards in this case are reviewed utilizing the vacatur provisions of Federal Arbitration Act which would be applied by a United States District Court judge.  Here, under the vacatur provisions of the Federal Arbitration Act, no grounds permitted the partial awards to be vacated.  The court held that although it is uncertain whether the manifest disregard of the law vacatur rule remains extant, the rule is applied to this case and the federal excess of powers standard of judicial review to the partial rewards, and thus, the order vacating the partial arbitration awards is reversed.

Related Resource:

• Full text of Countrywide Fin. Corp. v. Bundy, B215912