Texas: analysis of Texas Arbitration Act provisions of arbitrator’s calculations

Originally published by Gene Roberts.

In Mega Builders, Inc. v. Paramount Stores, Inc., the trial court denied Mega Builder’s motion to modify an arbitration award because of an alleged error by the arbitrator in calculating the amounts owed, failing to award pre-judgment interest, and refusing to award attorney’s fees. The Fourteenth Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision.
Reviewing the Texas General Arbitration Act, the Court of Appeals held that the arbitrator did not make an award based upon an “evident miscalculation of numbers”. An evident miscalculation of figures must be clear, concise, and conclusive from the record. Here, the court determined that the award does not reflect an obvious mathematical miscalculation and because there was no record of the arbitration proceedings before the Court of Appeals, it could not determine if the calculation was intentional or not. Additionally, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals held that the arbitrator did not exceed her authority when she refused to award pre-judgment interest …

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