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Supreme Court No. 2001-33-Appeal. (PM 95-197) Concurrence begins on page 11 Pier House Inn, Inc. v. 421 Corporation, Inc. : : :

Present: Lederberg, Flanders, and Goldberg, JJ. OPINION Lederberg, Justice. Can the Superior Court remand an arbitration award to the arbitrator for clarification? We answer in the affirmative. A Superior Court justice properly vacated an arbitrator's punitive damages award and remanded the award to the arbitrator. We affirm the Superior Court's confirmation of the clarified arbitration award. Preliminary Facts The dispute between the parties began in May 1993, when Pier House Inn, Inc. (Pier House or plaintiff) leased facilities in Narragansett, Rhode Island, to 421 Corporation, Inc. (421 Corp. or defendant) "to be used exclusively as a first-class restaurant." The parties' business relationship soon soured, and in February 1994, plaintiff filed an action for eviction and nonpayment of rent in District Court. Upon defendant's motion, the District Court submitted the case to arbitration pursuant to the terms of the lease. On December 20, 1994, the arbitrator issued an award, granting Pier House possession of the premises and also awarding $10,264 on its claim for rent, $10,634.93 on its claim for utility bills, and $41,030.18 on its claim for attorney's fees. On 421 Corp.'s counterclaim for breach of contract, the arbitrator granted judgment for

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defendant in the amount of "$4,072.25 as compensatory damages" and "$150,000 as punitive damages." The award termed "punitive damages" constitutes the core of the dispute between the parties. On April 5, 1995, a Superior Court hearing justice confirmed, upon defendant's motion, all parts of the award except the punitive damages, vacated the punitive damages award, and directed that "the matter [of punitive damages] be reheard by the arbitrator."1 No further action was taken for two years until plaintiff filed a petition for issuance of a writ of certiorari that was denied by this Court on March 5, 1999. The defendant then sought the rehearing ordered by the hearing justice. On July 14, 2000, the arbitrator issued a clarified award, stating, "The award of punitive damages was in fact intended to compensate [defendant] for actual damages it sustained because of wrongful acts of Pier House Inn, Inc., related to the lease." The defendant moved to confirm the award as clarified. After a hearing before a different justice of the Superior Court, the award was confirmed on October 26, 2000, and plaintiff filed this timely appeal. Additional facts will be presented in discussing the issues on appeal. Vacating the Punitive Damages Award We first examine whether the April 5, 1995 hearing justice properly vacated the arbitrator's award of punitive damages. This Court has recognized that the judiciary's role in the arbitration process is "extremely limited." Purvis Systems, Inc. v. American Systems Corp., 788 A.2d 1112, 1114-15 (R.I. 2002). By statute, General Laws 1956

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