Vexatious Delay in Payment of an Arbitration Award
Pryor filed suit to confirm an uninsured motorist arbitration award against United Equitable Insurance Company. After being served, United paid the arbitration award and sought to dismiss the claims against them, along with sanctions against Pryor’s counsel. The Court dismissed both the count to confirm the arbitration award and the count for bad faith against United with prejudice and denied the motion for sanctions. Pryor appealed the dismissal of the bad faith claim because payment had not been made on the arbitration award at the time the suit was filed.
The Court held that United’s delay in payment was not unreasonable because United did not refuse to participate in arbitration or refuse to pay the arbitration award. Although United did not pay the award as fast as Pryor anticipated, Pryor alleged no facts which indicated that United of vexatiously delayed payment in bad faith. Furthermore, under the Illinois Uniform Arbitration Act, United had 90 days, as a matter of right, from the date of the arbitration award to move to vacate or modify the award and since the instant action under section 155 was filed within the 90 days that United had to appeal, the Court cannot reasonably find that United vexatiously delayed payment of the arbitration award. The Court noted that the arbitration award was paid 35 days after Pryor faxed United an executed release of physician’s lien and requested payment. From the time of the fax to the filing of this suit, 25 days expired, and this time period does not demonstrate vexatious delay of payment.
Pryor v. United Equitable Ins. Co., 2011 IL App (1st) 110544,963 N.E.2d 299 Ill.App. 1 Dist.,2011.
