Pursuant to the FAA, a motion to vacate, modify, or correct an arbitration award must be served within three months after the award is filed or delivered. 9 U.S.C. § 12. Thus, a Maryland federal court held that the defendants’ request, via its answer on August 27, 2018, to vacate an arbitration award issued on January 31, 2018, was untimely.

The court also rejected the defendants’ argument that there was a genuine dispute of material fact regarding the existence of the franchise agreement based on the date of the subject franchise agreement referenced in the plaintiff’s papers. The defendants admitted that they entered into the franchise agreement attached to the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment to confirm the arbitration award. The agreement contained the arbitration clause underlying their dispute. Thus, the court held that the “[p]laintiff’s failure to reference the accurate franchise agreement date in both their application to confirm arbitration award and motion for summary judgment does not create a genuine issue of material fact regarding the franchise agreement’s existence.”

Choice Hotels Int’l, Inc. v. Gopi Hosp., LLC, No. 8:18-cv-01680 (D. Md. July 18, 2019).