| (Signed) |
" W. R. TURNER, District Judge." |
There is no pretense that the award was made through partiality, fraud or mistake. It is sufficiently certain. The contract was before the arbitrators and the Court; and the award that defendants should pay according to the contract, reduced the amount to a mere matter of calculation. If provisions or money had been paid, defendants might have shown it. Everything must be intended in favor of an award. (Watson on Arb. 209; U.S. Dig. 213, secs. 357 and 8, 360, 61, 64, and 394; 2 Wend. 156; 1 McMullan S. Cas. 302.) If ambiguous, may be explained by parol. (1 Hill. 489.)
HEYDENFELDT, Justice, delivered the opinion of the Court, with whom MURRAY, Chief Justice, and ANDERSON, Justice, concurred.
OPINION
HEYDENFELDT, Justice.
An award, to be effectual, must be certain and conclusive, and all intendments must be in favor of giving it certainty. The Court must lean to such construction as will support it; and the uncertainty, if any, must expressly appear upon its face.
In the case before us, the auditors award, " that said Norman is not any part owner or proprietor of said alley; and that said Rolfe, Pierson, et al., pay said Norman for said building, agreeable to contract in writing."
The submission left the whole subject-matter in dispute to the arbitrators, and expressly stipulating that their award shall stand as the final settlement of the case.
It is evident, from merely reading the award, that it is uncertain and incomplete, and defeats the object of the submission, which is to make an end of litigation. It has not certainty, to a common intent. It is true that there is a contract attached to the exemplification, and marked filed, by the clerk below. This, however, has no verity, and is no part of the record. It is not described in the award, and we cannot know that it is the one referred to. But even if it were a part of the award, the latter would not be aided; for, with both together, the rights of the parties are unascertained.
The judgment is reversed, with costs.