Report No. 76

5.21. Section 17.-

We now proceed to section 17. Under section 17, where the court sees no cause to remit the award or any of the matters referred to arbitration for reconsideration or to set aside the award, the court shall, after the time for making an application to set aside the award has expired, or such application having been made, after refusing it, proceed to pronounce judgment according to the award and upon the judgment so pronounced a decree shall follow and no appeal shall lie from such decree except on the ground that it is in excess of, or not otherwise in accordance with, the award. That part of section 17 which bars an appeal except on the specified grounds has led to a conflict of decisions which can be best understood in the light of the historical evolution of the law.

5.22. The scheme of section 17, which provides that no appeal shall lie from a decree in accordance with the judgment based upon an award except on the ground that the decree is in excess of, or not otherwise in accordance with, the award is that the parties having themselves chosen the arbitrator, the award given by such an arbitrator should constitute final adjudication of the dispute and it should not be open to the court of appeal to substitute its own opinion for that of the arbitrator, in the same way as a trial court could not do so. The right of appeal is consequently confined only to that part of the decree which is stated to be in excess of, or not in accordance with, the award.