Arbitrator Ben DeVries Terrible, Arbitrator to Avoid Conroe ,Panorama Village, Texas

We used Premier Relocations Mayflower Moving for a move from Michigan to California. The movers were very careless and damaged nearly every item of our wood furniture including valuable antiques and expensive mahogany items. They also lost some items.

As required by contract, we filed a claim in arbitration with National Arbitration Forum with the damaged items making up about 90% of the dollar value of the claim. An initial arbitrator was assigned but Mayflower immediately removed him and Ben DeVries was named. Our request in turn to remove DeVries was disregarded by NAF because they said it went to the wrong address. Ben DeVries issued a ruling which denied our claim for the missing items and containing a list of the damaged with "No" checked including those that the mover even admitted we had claimed for. His ruling had obvious mistakes and referenced matters that were directly contradicted by the evidence, including matters admitted to by the moving company.

 At extra expense to us, we filed a reasoned request for reconsideration, noting that he did not conside the evidence on the main claim. We cited the evidence and law in detail. We incliuded phortographs of the damage. The moving company responded and even agreed that some items had, indeed been claimed as damaged and that if he was to so rule, he could award damages on those items. 

 DeVries ruling was a boilerplate denial that came within a day of the mover's response which again did not even address the claim for the damaged items. The boilerplate language stringly suggests he did not even read our motion for reconsideration. If he had read it, a fair minded arbitrator would at least address the very specific points of error raised in the motion.

As a lawyer who has handled many arbitrations myself, and incidentally, who has also argued before the US Supreme Court, this is without question the worst arbitrator I have ever run across or even heard about. Having a ruling against us is one thing but to issue the type of plainly erroneous rulings here that cite wrong facts, ignore evidence agreed to by the other party and refuse even to address the major claim in the arbitration is appalling.

Ben DeVries should be ashamed of doing such a shoddy job that not only denied us justice but besmirches the process and his reputation. One has to wonder if he is free from bias. His rulings certainly give no confidence that he is. The ruling leaves us with the stress and loss of the poor moving and the burden of paying for repairs that

I would strongly urge anyone to avoid Ben DeVries as an arbirator. If he is assigned as your arbitrator, I suggest removing him. Based on our experience, I would have no confidence whatever that he will read, understand, analyze or consider your claims properly.