A clause in an insurance contract providing for the delegation to two experts, appointed by the parties, of the assessment of damages constitutes a contractual expert determination and not arbitration, when the parties defer to one or more third parties the task of formulating a technical assessment on the existence of damage, on the value of damaged property and on the estimation of compensation, undertaking to accept such valuation as direct expression of their contractual will, excluding from the powers of the experts the resolution of questions relating to the validity and effectiveness of the insurance coverage.
Contractual expert determination is distinguished from arbitration in that, whilst in the first case the parties entrust to the experts a declaration of knowledge limited to the mere ascertainment and assessment of technical data, in the second case they entrust to the arbitrators an act of volition for the resolution of purely legal questions such as the interpretation of the contract, the ascertainment of its validity or the evaluation of its effectiveness.
The agreement for a contractual expert determination does not prevent the parties from having recourse to the court for the resolution of disputes involving legal questions, such disputes being excluded from those entrusted to the experts and falling within their competence exclusively the technical assessment of the facts subject to the collective mandate.