AKBITRATIONS AND AWARDS 227 



nature of the thing will admit. An arbitrator must not award 

 a voluntary performance. So an award that if Brown give up 

 his shares, Jones shall pay him a certain sum, is bad. Brown 

 should be peremptorily ordered to give up the shares, and 

 Jones should be directed to pay the sum in question. Finally, 

 an arbitrator should not reserve or except from his award any 

 of the matters referred, or it may be declared not to be final. 



(e) An award must not be impossible, unreasonable, inconsistent, 

 or illegal. To every one who appreciates the fact that law is 

 founded upon common sense, the propriety of the above rule 

 will be quite clear. To take an illustration, an award that 

 Brown shall deliver up to Jones a deed which is in the custody 

 of Smith is impossible (see Lee v. Elkins, 1702, 12 Mod. 585). 

 But the defendant could not say that an award was impossible 

 because his financial position was such as to make it impossible 

 for him to pay the amount which the arbitrator had awarded. 



An award must be reasonable. In an old case it was held 

 that an award that one party should give a horse or release 

 his right to certain land in satisfaction of a trespass, or erect 

 a stile on the land of another, was so obviously unreasonable 

 as not to be binding upon the party (Ross v. Boards, 1838, 

 3 N. & P. 382). 



Consistency, too, must characterise an award. Where an 

 arbitrator expressly acquitted one party of fraud and yet 

 decided against him, and in favour of the other, his award 

 was set aside for uncertainty (Ames v. Milward, 1818, 8 

 Taunt. 637). 



Finally, the award must not direct the doing of any illegal 

 act. An award directing one party to commit an illegal act 

 or trespass or to commit a crime would be at once upset. 



31. Time for making an award. Under the Arbitration 

 Act, 1889 (Sched. I. (c)), where no other time is fixed by agree- 

 ment, arbitrators must make their award in writing within 

 three months after entering on the reference, or after having 

 been called on to act by notice in writing from any party to 

 the submission ; or on or before any later day to which the 

 arbitrators by any writing signed by them may from time 

 to time enlarge the time for making the award. By the same 

 schedule (cl. (e)) an umpire must make his award within one 

 month after the original or extended time appointed for making 

 the award has expired, or on or before any later day to which 



Q2 



