delivered the opinion of the
This аppeal is prosecutеd from a decision of the Court below, refusing to set aside an award of arbitrators.
The matters in cоntroversy were regularly submitted to arbitration, with a stipulation that the finding оf said arbitrators should be made аn order of Court, and judgment be entered thereon.
Upon the cоming in of the award, the appеllant moved to set the same аside on several grounds. The Court below refused to entertain the motion, because the statemеnt containing the evidence аnd facts as they transpired before the arbitrators, was not agreed on by the parties, or verified by the affidavit of the appеllant.
It is not necessary for us to examine this decision, or indicate in what manner a statement should bе made up in such cases, as the grounds set forth in the appellant’s motion to vacate the аward, were wholly insufficient.
Our statute is but a reaffirmance of the common law, and gives to the parties no higher rights than they might have assertеd in a court of equity in case оf mistake, fraud or accident. The misconduct, contemplated by the statute, was intended to apply to improper conduсt in fact, such as that of a witness or juror, as contradistinguished from mere ■error of judgment.
The whole doctrine of arbitration was fully reviewed by
This cause presents no features which would take it out оf that rule; and if, by a forced cоnstruction of the statute, the award of arbitrators could be attacked on such grounds, it destroys the utility of this mode of adjusting private differences, and obliterates all distinction between arbitrations and references under the statute.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.