Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich
The parties sought to confirm or vacate an arbitration award issued in favor of Zakarian Management Group (ZMG) arising from the failure of a restaurant business. Lax and others invested in chef Geoffrey Zakarian's new restaurant, Country. As disputes arose, the parties chose to part ways and Lax signed a personal guaranty of Country's obligations to Zakarian. The parties signed a general release in which they released all claims against one another arising from Country's operation. ZMG sued Lax to enforce the guarantee, while Lax and others sued Zakarian and ZMG for improprieties Zakarian allegedly committed in his management of Country. ZMG was granted summary judgment and the parties were directed to arbitration on Lax's action. The arbitrator held that Lax's claims against Zakarian did not fall within the parties' release carve-out language as Zakarian did not commit willful misconduct. The court found the award did not violate strong public policy, nor was it irrational, noting it could not second guess the arbitrator's interpretation of the parties' release agreement. Also, it stated as the agreement did not affect interstate commerce, Federal Arbitration Act did not apply, nor would there be a ground to vacate the award if it did. Thus, the court confirmed the award.
