A pro se plaintiff had sought to confirm a $116,313 award by “Sitcomm Arbitration Association,” which had allegedly ruled that TD Auto Finance LLC was liable for breach of contract. TD Auto Finance contested the petition by moving to dismiss, contending that the award was a “sham” related to the repossession of the plaintiff’s car and that it had never agreed to participate in an arbitration. The district court agreed with TD Auto Finance and dismissed the petition, finding that the plaintiff failed to submit a valid agreement to arbitrate and noting that the purported award was incomprehensible, lacked factual findings and legal conclusions, and did not support the existence of an agreement between the parties.

On appeal, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the plaintiff’s argument that TD Auto Finance was barred from challenging the award because it had not moved to vacate it within the three-month statutory time period. The court ruled that it was unnecessary to consider this issue, where, as here, the district court properly denied a petition to confirm that lacked “evidence of a genuine arbitration award and an agreement between the parties.”

Pena v. TD Auto Finance LLC, No. 21-1670 (3d Cir. July 15, 2021).