Lapointe v. Mendoza

Samy Lapointe, Respondent, against Severiano Mendoza, Appellant. Severiano Mendoza, appellant pro se. Samy Lapointe, respondent pro se (no brief filed). Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Kings County (Joy F. Campanelli, J.), entered April 26, 2017. The order denied defendant's motion to vacate an arbitrator's award and, in effect, a judgment of that court entered October 16, 2017 pursuant to the arbitrator's award. ORDERED that the order is affirmed, without costs. Plaintiff commenced this small claims action to recover $5,000 for loss of employment. The parties agreed to submit the matter to arbitration and signed a "consent to arbitration," advising them that the arbitration award was final and that no appeal would be permitted. Following the arbitration hearing, the arbitrator awarded plaintiff $5,000. Defendant subsequently moved to vacate the arbitrator's award. On October 16, 2017, a judgment was entered pursuant to the arbitrator's award (see Uniform Rules for NY City Civ Ct [22 NYCRR] § 208.41 [n] [5]). Defendant appeals from an order of the Civil Court denying his motion to vacate the arbitrator's award and, in effect, the judgment entered pursuant thereto. A party seeking to vacate a small claims arbitration award, and a judgment entered pursuant thereto, bears the burden of establishing, by clear and convincing evidence, one of the [*2]statutory grounds enumerated in CPLR 7511 (b) (see e.g. Matter of Arab v ATC Jewelers, Inc., 45 AD3d 588 [2007]; May v Scotto-D'Abusco, 31 Misc 3d 148[A], 2011 NY Slip Op 50987[U] [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2011]). Here, defendant failed to establish any ground under CPLR 7511 (b) warranting the vacatur of the award. We note that this court does not consider documents attached to defendant's brief on appeal, as they are dehors the record (see Chimarios v Duhl, 152 AD2d 508 [1989]). Accordingly, the order is affirmed. PESCE, P.J., WESTON and ALIOTTA, JJ., concur. ENTER: Paul Kenny Chief Clerk Decision Date: May 24, 2019