The arbitrator’s right to payment of his fees arises from the fact of having actually performed the mandate conferred upon him within the relationship of mandate existing with the parties and is independent of the validity and effectiveness of the award, and is not extinguished where the award is invalid.
In the summary taxation procedure provided for by art. 814 cod. proc. civ. the President of the Court may conduct no inquiry into the validity of the arbitration agreement or of the award, nor into the regularity of the appointment of the arbitrators, those matters being reserved to the court hearing the challenge.
The existence of the claim to fees in favour of an arbitrator who has discharged his task is not vitiated by defects in the award, without prejudice to the admissibility of an action in damages against him, to be brought before the competent court, where the award is set aside for a cause attributable to him.
For the purpose of taxing the fees due to the members of an arbitral tribunal composed solely of advocates, regard must be had to the parameters relating to out-of-court activity which govern the remuneration due to arbitrators, with the consequence that the value of the dispute must be determined on the basis of the claims set out in the request for arbitration and not of what was awarded.
Arbitrators are not to be equated, for the purposes of the remuneration due to them, with practising members of the Bar, the activity performed in the two cases being different; admission to practise as an advocate does not operate as a criterion of assimilation and of automatic transposition to arbitrators of the fees due to such professionals, a complete and mechanical application of the parameters for the taxation of advocates’ professional fees not being permissible.
The parties are jointly and severally liable for payment of the remuneration and expenses taxed in favour of the arbitral tribunal, subject to recourse between them.