Law360, New York ( February 5, 2016, 11:58 AM EST) -- On Jan. 7, 2016, in Beacon Towers Condominium Trust v. Alex, No. SJC-11880, 473 Mass. 472 (2016), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) held that a fee award entered against a party for making frivolous arguments and conducting an arbitration in bad faith must be vacated. Massachusetts law normally prohibits fee shifting in arbitration proceedings, unless it is explicitly provided in the agreement to arbitrate. Here, the court concluded that neither the language of the arbitration agreement nor the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association, which governed the proceeding, provided the arbitration panel with authority to award attorneys' fees. The decision of the lower court vacating the panel's award of attorneys' fees was therefore affirmed....
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