Opinion
Argued January 10, 2000
February 24, 2000
In a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 75, inter alia, to stay arbitration, the petitioner appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Barone, J.), entered June 8, 1999, which, among other things, denied his motion to stay the arbitration and granted that branch of the respondent's cross motion which was to direct the parties to proceed with the arbitration scheduled with the American Arbitration Association.
William R. Kutner, White Plains, N.Y., for appellant.
Bainton McCarthy Siegel, LLC, New York, N.Y. (John G. McCarthy of counsel), for respondent.
LAWRENCE J. BRACKEN, J.P., WILLIAM C. THOMPSON, GLORIA GOLDSTEIN, LEO F. McGINITY, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs.
Since the petitioner filed a demand for arbitration, the Supreme Court properly denied his motion to stay the arbitration (see,CPLR 7503[b]; Matter of Commerce Indus. Ins. Co. v. Nester, 90 N.Y.2d 255 ; Matter of Carbone/Orrino Agency v. Carbone, 210 A.D.2d 221;Matter of Smullyan v. Sibjet S.A., 201 A.D.2d 335 ; Matter of Home Mut. Ins. Co. v. Springer, 130 A.D.2d 493 ).
The record does not support a finding that the arbitrators' conduct created an appearance of bias which warranted their disqualification (see, Matter of Astoria Med. Group v. Health Ins. Plan of Greater New York, 11 N.Y.2d 128 ; Rabinowitz v. Olewski, 100 A.D.2d 539 ). Consequently, the Supreme Court properly directed the parties to proceed with the arbitration scheduled with the American Arbitration Association.
The petitioner's remaining contentions are without merit.