Arbitration vs. Litigation in Church Disputes

A church signed a contract with an architect for the design and construction of an expansion project. The contract was the standard American Institute of Architects form, which requires all disputes to be resolved by arbitration in accordance with the Construction Industry Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) unless the parties mutually agree otherwise. The architect filed a demand for arbitration in which he claimed $50,000 of unpaid fees. The church filed a counter-claim for $500,000. An arbitrator awarded the church $12,000, and the architect appealed this decision on several grounds, including the arbitrator’s bias. A court rejected all of the architect’s claims, and upheld the arbitration award. This case illustrates a couple of important points: (1) Architects contracts contain a binding arbitration clause, requiring all disputes to be resolved pursuant to specified rules. A church that has a dispute with an architect will be compelled to resolve the dispute through arbitration instead of litigation. (2) Arbitration awards ordinarily will not be overturned by the courts. (3) Churches wanting arbitration conducted pursuant to other rules must modify the contract to say so. Sanders v. Maple Springs Baptist Church, 787 A.2d 120 (D.C. App. 2002).