Skip to Content

Second Circuit Affirms Denial of Vacatur of Employment Arbitration Award Due to Failure to Provide Evidence of Alleged Perjury in Arbitration Proceedings
June 11, 2021

The district court had denied a motion filed by a former employee of a department store for vacatur of an arbitration award that rejected a grievance filed by the employee’s union against the store. On appeal, the employee argued that the district court erred when it denied vacatur because the award was obtained by fraud, namely, false testimony. The Second Circuit affirmed, holding that, because the employee provided no record evidence of the arbitration testimony, and only repeated “unsupported allegations,” the appellant failed to show (1) the existence of fraudulent activity; (2) that, even with the exercise of due diligence, he could not have discovered the fraud prior to the award issuing; and (3) that the fraud materially related to an issue in the arbitration. The court concluded: “Without providing at least the challenged testimony, [the appellant] has failed to show that any perjury occurred or even that the testimony he wishes to challenge was materially related to the arbitrator’s decision.” The court affirmed, ruling that the employee failed to demonstrate any error with the denial of the motion for vacatur.

Bright-Asante v. Saks & Co., No. 20-1280 (2d Cir. May 14, 2021).
Authored By
Image: Michael N. Wolgin
Michael N. Wolgin
Related Practices
Reinsurance
©2026 Carlton Fields, P.A. Carlton Fields practices law in California through Carlton Fields, LLP. Carlton Fields publications should not be construed as legal advice on any specific facts or circumstances. The contents are intended for general information and educational purposes only, and should not be relied on as if it were advice about a particular fact situation. The distribution of this publication is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship with Carlton Fields. This publication may not be quoted or referred to in any other publication or proceeding without the prior written consent of the firm, to be given or withheld at our discretion. To request reprint permission for any of our publications, please use our Contact Us form via the link below. The views set forth herein are the personal views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the firm. This site may contain hypertext links to information created and maintained by other entities. Carlton Fields does not control or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of this outside information, nor is the inclusion of a link to be intended as an endorsement of those outside sites.

Disclaimer

The information on this website is presented as a service for our clients and Internet users and is not intended to be legal advice, nor should you consider it as such. Although we welcome your inquiries, please keep in mind that merely contacting us will not establish an attorney-client relationship between us. Consequently, you should not convey any confidential information to us until a formal attorney-client relationship has been established. Please remember that electronic correspondence on the internet is not secure and that you should not include sensitive or confidential information in messages. With that in mind, we look forward to hearing from you.