HOUSTON - Today, the 14th Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s confirmation of an arbitration award in favor of Rigid Global Buildings.
Court records show Antonio Vargas was employed by Rigid and signed an arbitration agreement on May 26, 2017, as a condition of his employment.
Vargas claims that on Aug. 19, 2017, while he was working for Rigid, a beam fell off a group of stacked beams and came down on his foot, causing severe injuries to his right toe and foot.
Court records show Vargas initiated an arbitration proceeding on Feb. 21, 2019, more than 18 months after his work-related injury. After an arbitrator was appointed, Rigid moved for summary judgment, asserting that Vargas’s negligence claim was barred because he did not file his claim within one year after the date of the incident.
In response, Vargas argued that the time limit is contrary to public policy, substantively unconscionable, unenforceable, and void under the Civil Practice and Remedies Code.
Court records show an arbitrator granted Rigid’s motion for summary judgment on the grounds that the time limit bars Vargas’s claims and subsequently denied Vargas’s motion for reconsideration. A trial court then denied Vargas’s petition to vacate the award and granted Rigid’s motion to confirm, leading to the appeal.
The 14th Court concluded that, under the applicable standard of review, the arbitrator did not exceed his powers and that the trial court did not err in denying Vargas’s petition to vacate the award.
“Other than his complaint that the arbitrator exceeded his powers, none of Vargas’s appellate complaints fits within any of the exclusive vacatur grounds listed in section 10 the (Federal Arbitration Act),” the opinion states. “Therefore the trial court did not err in denying Vargas’s petition to vacate the Award based on any of these complaints.
“Because Vargas has not shown that the trial court erred in denying his petition to vacate the award or in granting Rigid’s motion to confirm the Award, we affirm the trial court’s final judgment.”
Case No. 14-20-00309-CV