Shawn Olali v. CVS, Incorporated

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals incorrectly and without due cause stated that when the arbitration award is dismissed in it’s entirety, in effect, it cannot be set aside for lack of finality. The question is presented to the US Supreme Court appropriately and in the arbitrator’s own words. The Plaintiff will not adopt language not found in the arbitrator’s own award, as the Fifth US Court of Appeals has done, and hence the question presented is straightforward.

1. Whether an arbitration award is “mutual, final, and definite” upon the matter submitted under 9 U.S.C. § 10(a)(4) when it purports to dispose of “all [specified] claims,” yet explicitly states submission of alternative or fewer claims than those actually Submitted to the arbitration and analyzes only said specified claims and the award’s own reasoning shows that the all-dispositive language rests on analysis that did not reach an Omitted, submitted claim; and whether a court may confirm by inference or must vacate or remand for clarification.

2. Whether an arbitrator bound by an agreement to apply substantive law and to award only remedies available in court “exceeds [her] powers” under 9 U.S.C. § 10(a)(4) when the award departs from those directives.