Company claims arbitrator couldn’t hear, dozed off

By: Associated Press//January 3, 2014//

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By RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A company is trying to get out of paying an Iowa utility millions in a construction dispute by claiming that a retired judge who oversaw the arbitration proceedings had serious hearing problems and napped during the case.

Dustex Corp. asked a federal court in Iowa this week to vacate a $3.4 million arbitration award in favor of the municipal utility in Cedar Falls.

Kennesaw, Ga.-based Dustex argues that it didn’t receive a fair hearing due to the behavior of 76-year-old arbitrator Marshall Young, a retired state and federal judge in South Dakota.

Young chaired a three-member panel that heard a dispute over pollution-reducing equipment installed at a Cedar Falls power plant in 2007, which didn’t work as intended.

The panel ordered Dustex and two other companies to pay $3.4 million.

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