21 Iowa 111 | Iowa | 1866
It provided that Butler Bird, a justice of the peace, should enter judgment for the amount of the award, provided it did not exceed $500, and that if it exceeded the jurisdiction of a justice, “judgment shall be entered in any court having, jurisdiction of the same.” The award was for $741 in favor of .plaintiff, and it is now objected, in the first place, that this language is so indefinite that there could be no judgment under the statute in such su.br mission and award.
The statute is, that the parties'“must sign a written agreement specifying particularly what demands are submitted, the names of the arbitrators, and the court by which the judgment on the award is to be rendered.” Rev., § 8676.
We do not so understand the statute. Referees are, as a rule, appointed by the court; arbitrators by the parties. Referees are appointed with reference to their fitness and ability to report facts and legal conclusions, upon issues made in actions pending in court and submitted by the court for their determination. Arbitrators are appointed by the agreement of parties, and in most instances, as in this, to determine matters not in court, but what parties are willing to thus submit to an amicable, friendly tribunal of their own selection. It may be, as here, of a particular demand, or of their respective claims growing out of one transaction.
. The law requires the arbitrators' to make an award — not facts found and legal conclusions.
This award is, in legal contemplation, their judgment on the matter or matters submitted for their determination ; and to require the report and statement insisted upon by
We would not, except under tbe plainest command of tbe statute, give it a construction tending to sucb undesirable and unnecessary results.
The other objections urged in the motion to set aside the award in the court below are not pressed here. An examination of them, however, shows that they were based upon matters dehors the record — matters not now before us, and we are brought to the conclusion that the j udgment below should be
Affirmed.