Who Decides If There Is An Appeal From A Court Order Requiring Arbitration: The Parties Or The Court?

One of the first issues that can arise in a dispute is whether arbitration or court proceedings must be pursued. The issue will often arise from a motion by a defendant in the action.  The defendant will bring a motion to stay or dismiss the action on the basis that the dispute must be arbitrated.

What happens when one party wants to appeal the decision which grants the motion to stay or dismiss? Can the parties to the arbitration agreement agree beforehand that there shall, or shall not be, a right of appeal?  That was the issue that Federal Court of Appeal recently considered in Murphy v. Amway Canada Corporation.

Interestingly, the Federal Court of Appeal held that, while the applicable arbitration legislation can preclude an appeal from that decision, the parties cannot, and that the court’s own statutory powers relating to appeals apply despite what the parties have agreed to. This decision could have wider ramifications relating to the parties’ ability to limit or expand the powers of courts relating to arbitration proceedings. According to this decision, the parties may have no right to do so.

Background

Amway is in the business of distributing home, personal care, beauty and health products. It does so through individual distributors who sell the products in their homes or through other persons they recruit. Mr Murphy was an Amway representative in British Columbia.

The agreement between Amway and Mr Murphy was called the Registration Agreement. The Registration Agreement contained a clause requiring any dispute between the parties to be arbitrated. The arbitration clause contained conflicting provisions relating to the arbitration. On the one hand it said that the Ontario Arbitration Act, 1991 was to govern the “interpretation, enforcement, and any proceedings in any federal or provincial court in Canada.”  On the other hand, it said that Michigan law applied to the arbitration and that the “United States Arbitration Act shall govern the interpretation and enforcement of the arbitration rules and the arbitration proceedings.”  The Rules of Conduct incorporated into the arbitration clause stated that the arbitration would be conducted under the procedures of JAMS (an American-based dispute resolution service) or the American Arbitration Association.

The Murphy v Amway decision:

The Murphy v. Amway decision is most famous for the ruling that a party to an arbitration agreement who asserts a claim under the Competition Act must bring the claim by way of arbitration, and cannot bring the claim in court. Accordingly, Mr. Murphy was precluded from bringing a class action asserting remedies under the Competition Act against Amway.

A judge of the Federal Court stayed Mr. Murphy’s action based upon the arbitration agreement contained in the agreement between Mr Murphy and Amway. Mr. Murphy appealed. A preliminary issue in the Federal Court of Appeal was whether Mr. Murphy had any right to appeal.

Amway argued that Mr. Murphy had no right of appeal from the decision of the Federal Court because, by virtue of the parties’ agreement, the Ontario Arbitration Act, 1991 applied. Section 7 of that Act provides for a party to an action bringing a motion to stay an action based upon an arbitration agreement. Sub-section 7(6) states that “there is no appeal from the court’s decision.”  Accordingly, Amway argued that the parties had incorporated sub-section 7(6) into their agreement and that subsection precluded Mr. Murphy from appealing.

The Federal Court of Appeal rejected Amway’s submission and held that Mr. Murphy was entitled to appeal.  It held that the Ontario Arbitration Act, 1991 did not apply to the Registration Agreement as a matter of statute law. It said: “Simply put, we are not bound by the term of that statute.” It so held presumably because the Registration Agreement related to an Amway representative located in British Columbia and a distribution agreement to be performed in British Columbia, and not agreements made in Ontario.  The Federal Court of Appeal accordingly held that the Ontario Arbitration Act, 1991 only applied by way of agreement, that is, by being incorporated into the Registration Agreement.

The Federal Court of Appeal further held that, simply as an agreement, the arbitration clause in Registration Agreement could not over-ride the Federal Courts Act. That Act provides for an appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal from decisions of the Federal Court. In that situation, the Federal Court of Appeal held that the Federal Courts Act applied and was not ousted by the parties.

The Federal Court of Appeal distinguished the present situation from that found in a number of provincial trial and appellate courts decisions in which the court had applied sub-section 7(6), or the comparable section in other provinces. In those cases, sub-section 7(6) applied directly to the proceedings because the arbitration was governed by that provincial law. Here, the Ontario Arbitration Act, 1991 apparently had no application qua statute.

The Federal Court of Appeal also distinguished the decision in Halterm Ltd v. Canada, [1984] F.C.J. No 541. In that case the parties had effectively appointed the Federal Court trial division as the arbitrator of their dispute. In that situation, they were permitted to make a binding and effective agreement that there would be no appeal.

In the result, the Federal Court of Appeal held that the parties had not and could not agree there was no appeal from the judge’s order granting the stay. The Court proceeded to hear the appeal, but dismissed the appeal on the ground that the Federal Court had properly held that the dispute must be determined by arbitration.

Discussion

This decision raises the very interesting public policy issue of where the limits of agreement are in respect of court procedures generally and specifically in relation to arbitration proceedings.

There are a number of sections in the Ontario Arbitration Act, 1991 that state that there is “no appeal” or limited rights of appeal:

section 7(6) – no appeals with respect to a court decision to stay the action in favour of arbitration;

section 10(2) – no appeals with respect to the court’s appointment of the arbitral tribunal;

section 15(6) – right of appeal only by a removed arbitrator or party with respect to a court decision to remove an arbitrator;

section 16(4) – no appeal from court order appointing a replacement arbitrator; section 17(9) – no appeal from a court order dealing with a jurisdictional objection.

None of these prohibitions on appeals (and particularly the one found in sub-section 7(6) of the Ontario Act) are found in the British Columbia Commercial Arbitration Act. This may be the reason why Amway relied upon the Ontario Act.

These prohibitions on appeal exist alongside the provisions in the Courts of Justice Act and the Rules of Civil Procedure contemplating appeals from the same judges to courts of appeal.  Nevertheless, the latter provisions have been found to be inoperative in the face of the specific prohibition on appeals found in the Arbitration Act, 1991.

Section 3 of the Ontario Arbitration Act, 1991 says that “the parties to an arbitration agreement may agree, expressly or by implication, to vary or exclude any provision of this Act except” certain specific sections.  None of those non-waivable sections include any of the sections precluding appeals. In that situation may the parties agree that there is an appeal? Presumably the argument would be that the parties cannot create by an agreement an appeal to the courts; and that only the legislature can do that.

If that is so, and if the parties cannot contract in to an appeal, then should the parties be able to contract out of an appeal? Should they be able to contract out of the right in section 45 to seek leave to appeal? Section 45 is not one of the sections that the parties are precluded from waiving and the case law appears to support the entitlement of the parties to contract out of this statutory right to seek leave to appeal. But if a party can do so, should it also be entitled to contract out of the prohibition against appeals in the other sections?

These sections are, of course, one step closer to the arbitration than the situation in Murphy v. Amway. There, the appeal concerned an appeal from one Federal Court judge to the Court of Appeal, that is, an appeal within the court system itself.  So the argument that the parties should not be able to contract out of the appeal rights found in the court statutes may have greater weight. Nevertheless, without citing any authority, the Federal Court of Appeal held that no such agreement can be made, even if the prohibition on appeal is exactly what is found in provincial arbitration statutes. Since the prohibition on appeals is found in provincial statutes, it is hard to say that such a prohibition is contrary to general public policy.  The argument must be made entirely on the basis that the parties cannot, in advance, contract into or out of the provisions of the court system. For example, just as they cannot contract about what are the grounds for appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal (or the Supreme Court of Canada) will be between them, they cannot contract that there will be no such appeal.

The Ontario International Commercial Arbitration Act (ICAA) and the Model Law attached to that statute do not contain any prohibitions on appeals or any right to contract out of the statute. It is interesting to speculate why this is so, in light of the contrasting provisions in the domestic statute.  So far as appeals are concerned, one might conclude that, being an international law intended to be adopted in many countries, the Model Law does not deal with rights of appeal, leaving each country to sort that matter out. In the case of Ontario, however, the effect is to leave wide open rights of appeal in many cases in which there would be no appeal under the domestic statute. So far as contracting out, ICAA and the Model Law are written in a fashion that makes it appear that they are public policy and that the parties cannot contract out of them.

All of the above, and the decision in Murphy v. Amway, may make us re-think the legal principles underlying the waiver or creation of rights relating to appeals and arbitration proceedings.  Is the right to waive or create such rights based on contract law, administrative law, public policy or what, and why?

See Heintzman and Goldsmith on Canadian Building Contracts, 4th ed., chapter 10

Murphy v. Amway Canada Corporation, 2013 FCA 38

Arbitration – Stay of court proceedings – appeals – 

Thomas G. Heintzman O.C., Q.C., FCIArb                                                                                                            March 10, 2013

www.constructionlawcanada.com

www.heintzmanadr.com

Arbitration Appeal Rights: Think About Them Before Signing A Contract

Owners and contractors will normally insert an arbitration clause into their contract.  When they do so, they rarely consider their rights of appeal from an arbitral award.  The recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Kingsway Insurance Company v. Gore Mutual Insurance Company provides a good opportunity to develop a strategy towards appeal rights before signing a construction contract containing an arbitration clause.

Under the domestic Ontario Arbitration Act, an appeal of an arbitration award may be taken in two circumstances.  First, if the parties agree, then an appeal may be brought on a matter of law, fact or mixed fact and law.  Otherwise, an appeal may be brought on a matter of law with leave of the Superior Court.  In addition, of course, an application may be brought to set aside the award or for a declaration of the invalidity of the award.

In Kingsway, the Court of Appeal has held that leave to appeal is required before a further appeal may be taken from the Ontario Superior Court to the Court of Appeal for Ontario.  In arriving at this conclusion the Court resolved a statutory conflict.  Section 49 of he Ontario Arbitration Act states that leave to appeal is required from a decision of the Superior Court relating to an appeal to that Court of an arbitral award, or an application to set aside the award or a declaration of invalidity of the award.  However, section 6(1) (b) of the Ontario Courts of Justice Act states that an appeal lies to the Court of Appeal from a final decision of a judge of the Ontario Superior Court.

The Court of Appeal held that these two provisions are in direct conflict and that the conflict must be resolved in favour of the more specific provision in the Arbitration Act, being the Act which specifically governs domestic arbitrations in Ontario.

While Kingsway was not a construction law case, this ruling may be of importance to owners and contractors, particularly if they wish to preserve appeal rights relating to the arbitral decision.  Under Ontario law, the parties may include in their arbitration agreement a full appeal to the Superior Court on matters of law and fact.  If they do so, that is probably because they wish those issues to be dealt with by the Court in the usual way.  They may now be surprised to learn that the normal appeal route is not available to them, and that, despite their agreement and despite the normal situation in civil actions, they are only entitled, as of right, to one level of appeal.

The situation created by section 49 of the Ontario Arbitration Act may be contrasted with the Ontario International Commercial Arbitration Act (“ICAA”).  That Act applies to international arbitrations.  Like the ICAAs of virtually all the other provinces, the Ontario ICAA incorporates the New York UNCITRAL treaty provisions which do not countenance an appeal of the arbitral award.  Likewise, those provisions contain no provisions relating to an appeal from a decision of the Superior Court setting aside, or refusing to set aside, the award.  In these circumstances, the normal provisions of Section 6(1) (b) of the Ontario Courts of Justice Act presumably apply, as presumably would the comparable legislation in the other provinces.  Indeed, there are instances in which appeal courts in Canada have heard appeals from the provincial superior courts dealing with arbitrations under the ICAA statutes, without leave being granted.

Ironically, therefore, the ICAA statutes may allow for appeals as of right from a reviewing judge’s decision in circumstance in which no such appeal as of right exists under the domestic arbitration regime. That would be ironic since ICAA is generally considered to contain an “anti-appeal” regime.

A comparison of domestic arbitration statutes across Canada reveals a somewhat diverse regime with respect to appeals from decisions of reviewing judges.  The statutes in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia generally provide a similar regime. They allow for an appeal from the arbitral award to the Superior Court with leave on a question of law (except in Nova Scotia).  They generally allow the parties to provide in the arbitration agreement for appeals without leave on matters of law, fact and mixed fact and law.  But they also generally provide that any further appeals from the reviewing or appeal decisions of the Superior Court to the Court of Appeal are only with leave.

British Columbia permits an appeal of the arbitral award to the British Columbia Supreme Court on a question of law either with leave or on consent, but does not deal with further appeals.

Newfoundland and Labrador does not expressly provide for appeals from arbitration awards and establishes no express limit on, and does not address, appeals from orders reviewing and setting aside, or refusing to review and set aside, arbitration awards.

The Prince Edward Island statute contains the novel provision, whereby if the parties provide for an appeal in the arbitration agreement, then the parties have the right to appeal directly from an arbitral award to the Appeal Division.

In these circumstances, owners and contractors who are entering into arbitration agreements should carefully consider their rights of appeal.  Perhaps, rights of appeal are the very last thing they want.  In this case they may wish to specifically state that there are to be no rights of appeal.  In some provinces (like Ontario), the parties can, in the arbitration agreement, entirely contract out of their right to an appeal even with leave, while in other provinces (like Manitoba) they cannot.

But the parties may wish to have full rights of appeal, particularly if there are serious issues of law at stake.  If so, they may want to stipulate that the arbitral law of a specific jurisdiction is to apply to their contract and select one which is the most appeal-friendly.  If this is the case, then Ontario arbitral law may have become less suitable to those parties and more suitable to parties wishing to restrict appeal rights following a hearing before the Superior Court.

See Goldsmith and Heintzman, Canadian Building Contracts (4th ed), Chapter 10

Construction Law – Arbitrations – Contract – Appeals – Civil Procedure

Kingsway Insurance Company v. Gore Mutual Insurance Company 2011 ONCA 87   https://bit.ly/jP4xi7

Thomas G. Heintzman

www.constructionlawcanada.com                                                                           May 24, 2011