A joint venture for the construction of a residential building ended in a conflict resolved in arbitration pursuant to the agreement between the parties. After receiving the arbitrator's award one of the parties moved the Court to revoke the award, inter alia because the arbitrator held that the signature on the agreement was forged and therefore there is no validity to the arbitration agreement and also because the contract was illegal because some of its goals was to deceive the tax authorities.
The Court held that even if the contract is void or is a contract, one of which goals is a tax scam, sometimes the arbitration clause is of independent existence and in any case, the appearance of a party before the arbitrator may establish estoppel from raising the claim of non-existence of a valid arbitration agreement. For this reason, the Court rejected the motion to cancel the arbitrator award.