§ 9-9-5.Limitation of time as bar to arbitration

Statutes of limitation do not disappear just because a dispute moves to arbitration. This section lets a party invoke a time bar even outside court, but it channels how that argument gets made and who ultimately decides it.

Subsection (a) gives a party two court-side options: apply to stay the arbitration before it proceeds, or apply to vacate the award afterward, on the ground that the claim would have been too late if brought in court. The court has discretion whether to honor that bar — it is not automatic. But there is a catch: participating in the arbitration waives the right to raise the time bar in an application to stay. A party who wants to preserve that argument for court needs to act on it rather than proceed to arbitrate first.

Subsection (b) covers what happens if nobody goes to court at all. The party can still raise the time-bar argument directly to the arbitrators, who decide it in their own discretion. That decision is largely insulated from later court review — a court reviewing a confirmed or vacated award will not revisit how the arbitrators weighed the time bar unless one of the statute’s other grounds for vacating or modifying an award applies.