§ 172.054.Appointment by Court

The court as backstop, with tight deadlines and no appeal.

The court is the one where the arbitration sits — the district court or business court division of the county in which the place of arbitration is located.

Two failures trigger mandatory appointment. In a sole-arbitrator case, no agreed procedure and no agreement on the arbitrator; and in the two-plus-one fallback, a party or the two appointees failing to act.

Thirty days is the deadline in both. A party has 30 days from receipt of a request to appoint; the two appointed arbitrators have 30 days from their appointment to agree on the third.

The court shall appoint once a trigger is met. The duty is mandatory.

A different power applies to agreed procedures. Where the parties adopted their own procedure, the court may take necessary measures if a party fails to act, the parties or appointees fail to agree, or a third party such as an institution fails to perform its function.

That discretion respects the parties’ design while keeping the arbitration from dying of inaction.

Self-help beats the court. The power does not apply where the agreed appointment procedure provides other means for securing the appointment.

The decision is final and not subject to appeal. Constituting the tribunal is a threshold matter, and appellate review would stall the arbitration before it began.

Section 172.055 tells the court what to weigh when it makes the appointment.