§ 9-9-13.Vacation of award by court; application; grounds; rehearing; appeal of order

Vacating an award is arbitration’s version of overturning a verdict, and this section keeps that remedy narrow and fast-moving. Subsection (a) gives a party three months from delivery of the award to apply — miss that window and the challenge is gone, regardless of how strong the underlying complaint might be.

Subsection (b) lists the grounds available to a party who took part in the arbitration or was served with a demand for it. The court must vacate if that party’s rights were prejudiced by corruption, fraud, or misconduct in procuring the award; by partiality in an arbitrator who was supposed to be neutral; by arbitrators overstepping their authority or executing it so imperfectly that no final, definite award resulted; by a failure to follow this part’s procedures, unless the objecting party kept participating after learning of the failure without objecting; or by the arbitrator’s manifest disregard of the law. Subsection (c) covers the different situation of a party who never participated and was never served with a demand or an order to compel — that party can win vacation not only on the subsection (b) grounds but also by showing there was no valid arbitration agreement, that the agreement was not complied with, or that the claim was time-barred.

Two guardrails matter here. Subsection (d) shuts down one common argument: an award is not vacated just because the relief it grants is something a court of law or equity could not or would not have ordered — arbitrators are not confined to the remedies available in a courtroom. And subsection (e) explains what comes next after vacation: the court may send the matter back for rehearing before the same or new arbitrators, adjusting any time limits in the agreement to run from the date of the order, and the court’s ruling on vacation is treated as a final judgment that can be appealed under this part’s appeal provisions.