Thomas Kinkade Company v. Nancy White

OPINION

KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge.

In this case the coincidences all break one way. Mark Kowalsky was a purportedly neutral arbitrator in a dispute between the Kinkade Company and Nancy and David White. Nearly five years and nearly 50 hearing days into their arbitration, however, Kowalsky announced to Kinkade that its adversary, David White, and the Whites’ advocate on the arbitration panel, Mayer Morganroth, had each hired Kowalsky’s firm for engagements that were likely to be substantial. Kin-kade objected, to no avail. A series of irregularities in the arbitration followed, all of which…