O.C.G.A. § 9-9-12 (2019)

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Editor’s notes. - In light of the similarity of the statutory provisions, decisions under former Code Section 9-9-92 are included in the annotations for this Code section. Personal jurisdiction in Georgia Lottery Corporation arbitrations. - Trial court properly vacated an arbitration award against a mart owner in the mart owner’s personal capacity due to the arbitrator lacking personal jurisdiction over the mart owner as the mart owner was not a named party to the dispute, and the lessor failed to amend the demand or add the mart owner as a party. Ultra Group of Companies, Inc. v. Alli, 352 Ga. App. 71, 833 S.E.2d 751, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 529 (2019), cert. denied, No. S20C0336, 2020 Ga. LEXIS 421 (Ga. May 4, 2020). Georgia Lottery Corporation arbitrator had subject matter jurisdiction over disputes between licensees, not personal jurisdiction over the licensees themselves, particularly when the licensee was not a party to the dispute. Ultra Group of Companies, Inc. v. Alli, 352 Ga. App. 71, 833 S.E.2d 751, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 529 (2019), cert. denied, No. S20C0336, 2020 Ga. LEXIS 421 (Ga. May 4, 2020). Vacation of award limited to statutory grounds. - An arbitration award may be vacated only if one or more of the four statutory grounds set forth in O.C.G.A. § 9-9-13(b) is found to exist and, thus, an award could not be vacated based upon a determination that no evidence supported it; reversing Hundley v.

Greene, 218 Ga. App. 193, 461 S.E.2d 250 (1995). Greene v. Hundley, 266 Ga. 592, 468 S.E.2d 350. Issues resolved after application for confirmation. - Whether the applicable statute of limitation or other jurisdictional prerequisites have been met are issues necessarily resolved by the trial court after the party seeking confirmation files its application for confirmation. Hardin Constr. Group, Inc. v. Fuller Enters., Inc., 265 Ga. 770, 462 S.E.2d 130, 1995 Ga. LEXIS 719 (1995). Confirmation of arbitration award proper. - Trial court did not err in confirming an arbitration award issued by the State Bar of Georgia arbitration committee because an attorney was not required to comply with the filing and service requirements imposed by Rule 6-501 of the Arbitration of Fee Disputes (AFD) program of the State Bar; because the attorney elected to file an application for confirmation of the award pursuant to Georgia Arbitration Code, O.C.G.A. § 9-912, the attorney complied with the filing and service requirements of the Code, and the filing, service, and notice requirements for summary proceedings under Rule 6-501 of the AFD rules did not apply. Prince v. Bailey Davis, LLC, 306 Ga. App. 59, 701 S.E.2d 492, 2010 Ga. App. LEXIS 785 (2010), cert. denied, No. S11C0206, 2011 Ga. LEXIS 140 (Ga. Feb. 7, 2011). Judgment entered on arbitration award not in conformity therewith. - As a trial court’s confirmation of an arbitration award in favor of law clerks

resulted in an award of back pay to the clerks that was to be implemented from the date of the confirmation order, it was not in conformity with the arbitration award, which required implementation from the date of the award. Fulton County v. Lord, 323 Ga. App. 384, 746 S.E.2d 188, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 598 (2013), cert. denied, No. S13C1802, 2014 Ga. LEXIS 31 (Ga. Jan. 6, 2014). Denial of motion to confirm arbitration award error. - Trial court erred by denying the property owner’s motion to confirm an arbitration award entered in the owner’s favor and against the home builder because, even if the motion was filed prematurely, the motion ripened and was deemed to be filed when the trial court filed the court’s remittitur on February 1, 2021, and because the one-year period for filing an application to confirm the arbitration award had been suspended the motion was timely filed. When the trial court ruled on the motion on February 2, the arbitration award had not been vacated or modified. Kamara v. Mark Anthony Homes, 362 Ga. App. 596, 869 S.E.2d 551, 2022 Ga. App. LEXIS 73 (2022). Renewal application to confirm arbitration award. - Corporation’s original state court application to confirm an arbitration award was incapable of being renewed pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 9-2-61(a) because O.C.G.A. § 9-9-4(a)(1) required any application to the court under the Georgia Arbitration Code to be made in the superior court of the county where venue lies, and thus, the state court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the corporation’s original application; O.C.G.A. § 9-2-61(c) provided the only avenue by which the corporation could have resurrected the corporations’ original void action under the renewal statute. Warehouseboy Trading, Inc. v. Gew Fitness, LLC, 316 Ga. App. 242, 729 S.E.2d 449, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 528 (2012), rev’d, No. 10-1-12246-28, 2012 Ga. Super. LEXIS 729 (Ga. Super. Ct. Aug. 2, 2012). Superior court erred in granting a motion to dismiss a corporation’s renewal proceeding to confirm an arbitration award on the ground that the proceeding was barred by the one-year statute of

limitation contained in O.C.G.A. § 9-9-12 because the application to confirm the award was a valid renewal action under O.C.G.A. § 9-2-61(c), thereby tolling the one-year statute of limitation; the corporation’s original state court application to confirm the award was dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Warehouseboy Trading, Inc. v. Gew Fitness, LLC, 316 Ga. App. 242, 729 S.E.2d 449, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 528 (2012), rev’d, No. 10-112246-28, 2012 Ga. Super. LEXIS 729 (Ga. Super. Ct. Aug. 2, 2012). Construction with the arbitration of fee disputes program of the State Bar of Georgia. - Rules of the Arbitration of Fee Disputes (AFD) program of the State Bar of Georgia authorize a party seeking enforcement of the arbitration award to elect between the filing and service procedures provided by the general arbitration laws of the state, i.e., the Georgia Arbitration Code, and the filing and service procedures for the more summary and expedited proceeding authorized by Rule 6-501 of the AFD program; accordingly, a party seeking to enforce the results of the arbitration over attorney fees may elect to file an application for confirmation of the award in the superior court pursuant to the Georgia Arbitration Code, O.C.G.A. § 9-9-12, and the party must file and serve the application in the same manner as a complaint in a civil action, O.C.G.A. § 9-9-4 and the 30-day deadline for objections set forth in Rule 6-501 of the Arbitration of Fee Disputes (AFD) program of the State Bar of Georgia is not applicable. Prince v. Bailey Davis, LLC, 306 Ga. App. 59, 701 S.E.2d 492, 2010 Ga. App. LEXIS 785 (2010), cert. denied, No. S11C0206, 2011 Ga. LEXIS 140 (Ga. Feb. 7, 2011). Arbitration award to a client regarding a fee dispute. - Arbitration award to a client regarding a fee dispute with the client’s lawyer, since the lawyer did not agree to be bound by the award, could not be confirmed under O.C.G.A. § 9-9-12 because the award was not binding under the Rules of the State Bar of Georgia as the client initiated an arbitration proceeding before the State Bar of Georgia and the award was the product of the State Bar’s nonbinding arbitration

rules and procedures. Farley v. Bothwell, 306 Ga. App. 801, 703 S.E.2d 397, 2010 Ga. App. LEXIS 1059 (2010), cert. denied, No. S11C0501, 2011 Ga. LEXIS 315 (Ga. Apr. 18, 2011). Attorney’s objections to an attorney fee arbitration award in favor of the attorney’s client’s mother’s estate were filed too late; the client’s application to confirm the award was filed timely under O.C.G.A. § 9-9-12, but the attorney’s objection was filed well outside the three-month limitation in O.C.G.A. §§ 9-9-13(a) and 9-914(a). McFarland v. Roberts, 335 Ga. App. 40, 778 S.E.2d 349, 2015 Ga. App. LEXIS 575 (2015), cert. denied, No. S16C0522, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 229 (Ga. Mar. 7, 2016). Approval of arbitration award not yet issued. - Court cannot accept and incorporate into a divorce decree an incomplete and unenforceable arbitration award; such an award simply does not exist, in the same manner that an incomplete agreement does not exist; an arbitration award that has not been filed with the trial court cannot be incorporated into a final judgment and decree of divorce, and it is error for the court to state that such a nonexistent award is incorporated. Ciraldo v. Ciraldo, 280 Ga. 602, 631 S.E.2d 640, 2006 Ga. LEXIS 400 (2006). Confirmation of arbitration award improper. - Trial court had no evidence

on which to base the court’s determination that the former employee had failed to file any timely motions at the time the court signed the order confirming the arbitration award because the former employer’s petition, which was the only pleading before the trial court when the court rendered the court’s decision, did not allege or present any evidence showing that the arbitrators delivered the award to the employee in the manner prescribed by the Georgia Arbitration Act, O.C.G.A. § 9-9-1 et seq., or when such delivery occurred. Mughni v. Beyond Management Group, Inc., 349 Ga. App. 398, 825 S.E.2d 829, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 168 (2019). Motion to vacate properly denied in child custody proceeding. - In a child custody dispute, the trial court did not err by confirming the arbitration award and denying the father’s motion to vacate because the arbitrator’s decision automatically changing visitation did not violate public policy and that the award lacked evidentiary support was not a basis for vacating the arbitrator’s decision. Brazzel v. Brazzel, 337 Ga. App. 758, 789 S.E.2d 626, 2016 Ga. App. LEXIS 339 (2016), cert. denied, No. S16C1889, 2017 Ga. LEXIS 146 (Ga. Feb. 27, 2017).

RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. Pleading and Practice Forms. 2A Am. Jur. Pleading and Practice Forms, Arbitration and Award, § 106.