Cases & Deals

Fortune 20 company obtains vacatur of $70 million arbitration award

Client(s) Fortune 20 company

Jones Day wins vacatur of a $70+ million arbitration award that purported to bar our client, a Fortune 20 company, from allowing customers to self-install certain equipment in their own homes, and instead required that union employees perform all installations regardless of whether the customer wanted that or not. Jones Day argued that the functus officio doctrine prohibited the arbitrators from abandoning their previous ruling that customer self-installation did not violate the client’s collective bargaining agreement with a union. We also argued that the arbitrators’ back pay award was punitive since no identifiable employee lost pay due to customer self-installation. The Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Third Circuit agreed with both arguments.