259 A.D. 720 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1940
In a proceeding to confirm an award of arbitrators in favor of petitioner’s assignor, Zlatin, order confirming the award and judgment entered thereon reversed on the law and the facts, with ten dollars costs and disbursements, and motion denied, with ten dollars costs. Appellant’s affidavit in opposition to the motion alleges the following: Appellant, being involved in a controversy with petitioner’s assignor, was asked to appear on Sunday, May 9,1937, before a so-called “ Court of Arbitration.” Alone and without witnesses, he attended at the time and place designated. Though unable to read or write English, he was induced to sign a paper which was represented to be a “ register of my [his] appearance, ” but which was in fact an agreement to submit his differences "with Zlatin to arbitration. A hearing was then held before three arbitrators, which was broadcast over the radio. Appellant was given two minutes to state his defense. He was not advised that he might call his witnesses, nor did he have any adequate understanding of the nature of the proceeding. At the conclusion of the hearing he was advised that an award of $600 had been made against him. These allegations are not denied in the reply affidavit submitted in behalf of the moving party, and must, therefore, be deemed to be true. Assuming, as we must, the truth of appellant’s account of the proceedings, the award cannot stand. The arbitration agreement was procured fraudulently, and the hearing was not calculated to lead to a just determination.
