II. Background

Plaintiffs Jack Lorraine and Beverly Mack (“Lorraine”) suffered a lightning strike to their boat on May 17, 2004.12 The plaintiffs filed an insurance claim with defendant Markel American Insurance Company (“Markel”) and were compensated according to their insurance policy.13 Upon Lorraine's discovery of further damage to the hull of the boat some months later, Markel refused to issue further payment, disputing whether the damage to the hull was actually caused by the aforementioned lightning strike.14 After the parties negotiated a private arbitration agreement, an arbitrator awarded $14,000 to Lorraine for some of the damage to the hull caused by the lightning strike, rather than the $36,000 they had claimed.15 Subsequently, before the Maryland district court, Lorraine sought the full award of $36,000, while Markel sought enforcement of the arbitrator's $14,000 award.16

The question the parties wanted the court to answer was whether the arbitrator exceeded his authority by awarding less than the full amount of a potentially “all or nothing” arbitration agreement, as the parties had negotiated by e-mail.17 The court, however, dismissed each party's motions and refused to answer this question because both parties failed to authenticate as electronic evidence the e-mail they submitted with their motions.18