Seagate Technology, LLC v. Western Digital Corporation, Sining Mao

I agree with the court that none of the grounds for vacating an arbitration award are present here. See Minn.Stat. § 572.19, subd. 1 (2010). I am less certain, however, that the court’s analysis of waiver is correct.

When the court answers the question of what happens to a party’s challenge to the authority of the arbitrator under Minn.Stat. § 572.19, subd. 1(3), in the absence of an objection during the course of the arbitration, it answers only half of Seagate’s argument. The other half of Seagate’s argument is, and always has been, that Mao and Western Digital impliedly (yet intentionally)…