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Arbitration appeal dismissed; safe sport code applies retroactively to historical conduct to protect the public.
The applicant, a figure skating coach, sought leave to appeal an arbitration decision that found the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS) applied retroactively to his historical conduct from 2005.
The arbitrator had determined that the UCCMS was designed to protect the sporting public rather than punish past behaviour, thus falling under the protection of the public exception to the presumption against retroactivity.
The Superior Court of Justice granted leave to appeal but dismissed the appeal, finding no error of law in the arbitrator's application of the exception or his interpretation of the contractual consent signed by the applicant.
The court dismissed an application to set aside an arbitral award, finding it was an impermissible appeal on the merits.
The applicants sought to set aside an arbitral award under section 46 of the Arbitration Act, 1991, and moved for leave to introduce fresh evidence.
The court found that the fresh evidence was not relevant to the issues before the arbitrator and would not have affected the outcome.
The application was dismissed as an impermissible appeal of the merits of the arbitration, as the parties had excluded any right of appeal in their agreement.
The court confirmed that section 46 provides only limited grounds for setting aside an award and is not a substitute for an appeal.
Costs were awarded to the respondent.
