Arbitrator Not Required To Disclose Details About His Family, Or Religion.

After receiving an arbitrator’s award and searching the internet to find out the arbitrator’s parents were German Jewish escapees who lost family and property in the Holocaust, the losing party claimed the superior court erred in not vacating the award because the arbitrator did not disclose his religion and family background.  The losing party, whose father served in the German military during World War II and father-in-law was a member of the S.S., told the court “an Orthodox Jew, or a Hasidic Jew, would have the hairstyle, the beard, the . . .yarmulke, those kinds of things that would communicate his Jewishness and trigger the duty to inquire as to his history.”  The Court of Appeal affirmed the superior court’s denial of a motion to vacate, noting the relevant inquiry is not whether the arbitrator’s background might have led defendants to question his ability to be impartial, but, whether a person aware of the facts might have reasonably so believed.  Rebmann v. Rohde  (Cal. App. Fourth Dist., Div. 3; June 28, 2011) 196 Cal.App.4th 1283, [127 Cal.Rptr.3d 510].