Arbitration Award Vacated as Violative of Public Policy

It is no secret that convincing a judge to vacate or even modify an arbitration award is a tall order. Even more difficult is to vacate based on a public policy argument. To establish vacatur on public policy grounds, a petitioner must show either that the arbitrator decided an issue that is deemed a matter of public policy and thus not subject to an arbitrator’s jurisdiction or where the arbitrator’s award violates a well-defined law or regulatory provision; and this prong can be further broken down.

In this case, Petitioner was employed by an executive search firm. As part of his employment agreement, Petitioner agreed not to compete for six years within 100 miles of the company’s office and/or New York City. After arbitrating between Petitioner and his employer, Respondent, an award was issued that enforced the restrictive covenant. Petitioner came to court seeking to vacate the award. Among the arguments petitioner made was that the broad nature of the restriction, on its face, violated public policy as being unreasonable in scope as a matter of law.

After finding that the award did not run afoul of the first prong noted above, the Nassau County court considered whether the broad scope of this restriction comported with the policy considerations of restrictive covenants—to protect an employer but also not deprive an employee of earning a living in his chosen field of work. After noting that the six-year term would alone not necessarily offend public policy, the court turned to the geographic scope of the restriction. Finding that the award barred Petitioner from working in the “United States’s largest city by population [and] all of its metropolitan area, and more,” and “greatly affect[ed]” his ability to earn an income in the field where he has years of experience, did not just protect Respondent from unfair competition but was grounded in preventing Petitioner from competing at all and thus violative of public policy. As such, the award was vacated.

Colish v. Glaser, et al.