Before Justices Saitta, Pickering, and Hardesty. Opinion by Justice Pickering.
In this appeal, the Court considered a judgment summarily affirming a motion to confirm an arbitration award under the Uniform Arbitration Act. After receiving an arbitration award, Wells Fargo immediately filed a motion to confirm the arbitration award. Although the 90-day statutory period to challenge the award had not expired, the district court summarily granted the motion to confirm without allowing time to oppose it. The Court determined that this was error, holding that a district court may not confirm an arbitration award while there is still time within the 90-day period to challenge the arbitration award without allowing an opposition to the motion to confirm. There have been very few published cases interpreting the Uniform Arbitration Act and this opinion establishes the answers to some questions in addition to its primary holding. Specifically, the Court made clear that an action to confirm an arbitration award may be initiated by filing a motion to confirm the award and that a party has only ten days to oppose such a motion, despite the fact that it is an initial pleading. The Court left open the other important question of whether non-statutory bases for objecting to an arbitration award may be raised outside of the 90-day period to challenge the award. Reversed and remanded. (Kerry S. Doyle, Associate in the Reno office of McDonald Carano Wilson.)
