Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Richmond County (Philip S. Straniere, J.), dated January 11, 2011. The order denied defendant's motion to vacate an arbitrator's award.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff commenced this small claims action to recover for "nonpayment of wages." The parties consented to arbitration, and, following an arbitration hearing, an award was entered in plaintiff's favor. Thereafter, defendant moved to vacate the arbitrator's award, pursuant to CPLR 7511, arguing that plaintiff had been paid in full prior to the hearing, and that the arbitrator had refused to adjourn the hearing in order to permit the defense witness to secure defendant's purported documentary proof of payment. By order dated January 11, 2011, the Civil Court denied defendant's motion.

In seeking to vacate the arbitration award, defendant bore the burden of establishing one of the statutory grounds enumerated in CPLR 7511 (b) (see e.g. Matter of Arab v ATC Jewelers, Inc., 45 AD3d 588 [2007]; May v Scotto-D'Abusco, 31 Misc 3d 148[A], 2011 NY Slip Op 50987[U] [App Term, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2011]; Benham v George, 28 Misc 3d 128[A], 2010 NY Slip Op 51190[U] [App Term, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2010]). Since defendant failed to establish any of these grounds, the Civil Court properly denied defendant's motion to vacate the award.

Accordingly, the order is affirmed.

Aliotta, J.P., Pesce and Rios, JJ., concur.
Decision Date: April 30, 2013