Note from the reporter of decisions: The order adopting, effective February 1, 2009, Rule 71B, Rule 71C, and the Committee Comments to Rule 71B Effective February 1, 2009, is published in that volume of Alabama Reporter that contains Alabama cases from ___ So. 2d.

Committee Comments to Rule 71B Effective February 1, 2009

In his concurring opinion in Birmingham News Co. v. Horn, 901 So. 2d 27, 74 (Ala. 2004), Justice Lyons invited the Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Appellate Procedure “(a) to establish an easily understood triggering date for the time for taking an appeal from an arbitrator’s award and, should the proposed revision conflict with [Ala. Code 1975,] § 6-6-15, to recommend the abrogation of § 6-6-15, and (b) to recognize the availability of an independent action in the circuit court from which an appeal would lie as in other cases.” The Court provided further guidance in Horton Homes, Inc. v. Shaner, [Ms. 1061659, June 20, 2008] ____ So. 2d ____ (Ala. 2008). The Standing Advisory Committees on the Rules of Appellate Procedure and the Rules of Civil Procedure collaborated in response to those cases. The resulting rule clarifies the method for taking an appeal from an arbitration award and supersedes the procedure provided by Ala. Code 1975, § 6-6-15. Pursuant to this rule, the aggrieved party has no right to appellate review of an arbitration award unless that party has appealed to the circuit court from the arbitration award within 30 days of service of the notice of the award and has timely filed a Rule 59 motion to set aside or vacate the judgment on the arbitration award as described above. The rule provides that the notice of appeal from the arbitration award must be filed in the appropriate circuit court within 30 days of the receipt of the award, rather than within 42 days as indicated in some of the caselaw relating to an appeal of an arbitration award.