VIP Mortg. Inc. v. Gates, 162 F.4^th 1010 (9^th Cir. 2025)

The district court confirmed an arbitration award in favor of Jennifer Gates under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Arizona state law, and denied VIP Mortgage’s petition to vacate the award of unpaid overtime wages, attorneys’ fees and liquidated damages. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s orders. VIP contended the arbitrator erred in awarding attorneys’ fees because the arbitrator had previously approved the parties’ stipulation to dismiss VIP’s counterclaims, which included a provision that the parties would bear their own fees and costs on the counterclaims. The arbitrator apparently “forgot” about the stipulation, but the parties failed to remind her about it when they briefed the attorneys’ fees issue over a year later. The Court held that vacatur was properly denied because the error “was [not] so obvious and undisputed that the arbitrator must have known about it when she decided the legal issue.”