opinion: STATHATOS et al. v. ARNOLD BERNSTEIN S. S. CORP. THE MARIA STATHATOS.
  No. 115, Docket 22512.
  United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.
  Argued Jan. 5, 1953.
  Decided March 11, 1953.
  See, also, 87 F.Supp. 1007.
  Wilbur E. Dow, Jr., New York City (Dow & Symmers, Morris Douw Ferris and Daniel L. Stonebridge, all of New York City, on the brief), for petitioners-appellants.
  Phillip W. Haberman, Jr., New York City (Proskauer, Rose, Goetz & Mendelsohn, New York City, on the brief), for respondent-appellee.
  Before SWAN, Chief Judge, and CLARK and FRANK, Circuit Judges.
  CLARK, Circuit Judge.
  This proceeding was originally commenced by a petition filed in the district court on December 14, 1949, by the present appellants herein to compel arbitration of their differences with the Arnold Bernstein Steamship Corporation under the arbitration clause of a charter party chartering their vessel, the S.S. “Maria Stathatos,” to the respondent for the carriage of coal. The nature of the original dispute as to the coverage of the arbitration clause is set forth in the opinion of Judge Irving R. Kaufman ordering arbitration, reported in D.C.S.D.N.Y., 87 F.Supp. 1007. The arbitration thus ordered went forward and the arbitrators rendered an award in favor of the petitioners, confirmed in a total sum (including interest and costs) of $83,051.56 in a final decree by Judge Bondy on October 22, 1951. On or about March 6, 1952, petitioners commenced an action in the Supreme Court of New York by summons dated February 29, 1952, to collect upon the award. On March 25, 1952, respondent filed a notice of motion in the district court to vacate the final award and decree because it was discovered that the legal firm of one of the arbitrators had on occasion represented the plaintiffs. It is from Judge Noonan’s order granting this motion, vacating the prior award and ordering a resubmission to arbitration, that the petitioners now appeal.
  Respondent suggests doubt as to the finality of the order and its appeal-ability, an issue we must face at once. The authorities appear to show that the order is unappealable, since it does not finally determine any claim. Both the parties and the court below have treated the proceeding as a continuous one throughout, and all the orders have been entered and docketed on that basis. This practical interpretation of the law would appear in line with the view stated by Judge L. Hand for this court in Murray Oil Products Co. v. Mitsui & Co., 2 Cir., 146 F.2d 381, 383, where he said that arbitration is “merely a form of trial, to be adopted in the action itself, in place of the trial at common law: it is like a reference to a master, or an ‘advisory trial’ under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 39(c).” So he went on to hold for the court that hence an attachment at the beginning of suit in a state court removed to the federal court was not dissolved by the order to proceed to arbitration and the ultimate arbitration.'
  There seems no reason to question Judge Hand’s conclusion, particularly in view of his careful discussion of the problem. Thus he considered whether the express provision in the Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. A. § 8, for retention of jurisdiction to final decree upon the award in a proceeding begun by libel in admiralty and seizure of vessel or property suggested a different rule in other proceedings, and concluded to the contrary. The procedure for a stay pending arbitration, 9 U.S.C.A. § 3, which obviously contemplates a continuing action, likewise should not be held exclusive. The steps leading to arbitration and beyond are all of similar purpose and intent; they should not be confused or embarrassed by the development of distinctions resting on no more than whether the initiative is taken by a promisor evading arbitration or a promisee seeking it. So Judge Augustus N. Hand has ruled for our court, in a proceeding started just as this by a petition to compel arbitration, that an order directing arbitration is not appealable. In re Pahlberg Petition, 2 Cir., 131 F.2d 968, and see the proceedings below, Petition of Pahlberg, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 43 F.Supp. 761 and 2 F.R.D. 533. In this Judge Hand followed Schoenamsgruber v. Hamburg American Line, 294 U.S. 454, 55 S.Ct. 475, 79 L.Ed. 989, which happened to be a suit initiated by the promisor. While the order now at bar is a vacation of a prior award, it is in essence one which continues the proceeding for arbitration, just as do the orders in the cases just cited. The compulsory portions of these orders being the same, there seems no ground for distinctions here based upon the procedural mechanics which led to the orders.
  The issue would therefore seem ruled by the precedents cited to deny appealability to this one step in the continuing process of arbitration here going forward. It is to be noted that a like result has been reached in New York under this same uniform Act and the requirement for a final judgment for appeal to the Court of Appeals under N.Y.C.P.A. § 588-3. Industrial Union of Marine & Shipbuilding Workers of America, Local 39, C. I. O. v. Todd Shipyards Corp, 300 N.Y. 549, 89 N.E.2d 518, dismissing an appeal from 275 App.Div. 651, 86 N.Y.S.2d 663, where the court had ordered the matter sent back to the arbitrator; and Atlantic Rayon Corp. v. Goldsmith, 302 N.Y. 842, 100 N.E.2d 40, dismissing an appeal from 277 App.Div. 554, 100 N.Y.S.2d 849, where the court had continued motions to vacate and affirm an award for consideration and report on the issues by an official referee. We find no countervailing precedents; obviously such final district court actions as granting or refusing administrative subpoenas are not in point and contain no suggestion against the traditional federal rule disfavoring piecemeal appeals.
  Some suggestion is made that the action below may be beyond jurisdiction, since 9 U.S.C.A. § 12 states that the notice of a motion to vacate must be served within three months after the filing of the award. Whatever the bearing of this upon our action at this juncture, it seems clear that this being essentially a motion for relief against a judgment, as under F.R. 60 (b), 28 U.S.C., the court has jurisdiction, even though there might conceivably be error in the court’s refusal to apply the statutory limitation. While denial of a motion under F.R. 60(b) may lead to an appealable order of the grounds therein taken, see United States v. Wissahickon Tool Works, 2 Cir, 200 F.2d 936, it seems apparent, as stated in 3 Moore’s Federal Practice 3278, 1st Ed. 1938, that grant does not. At most the process leads only to a new trial, a step settled to be not reviewable. See Barbarino v. Stanhope S. S. Co, 2 Cir, 150 F.2d 54; F.R. 59, 73(a).
  This result discouraging disruptive and delaying appeals seems thus not only compelled on authority, but desirable as aiding effective use of the arbitration process. Appellate interference with district court approaches toward an as yet unrealized final adjudication can be justified only on the ground of probable error which should be speedily corrected. Even in the normal case, the chance of error, as shown by our actions in reversing the lower court, is only about one out of four. See Ann.Rep. Director Adm. Off. of U. S. Courts 1952, Table B 1, p. 112, and this same table in reports for earlier years. This small ratio of probable error is rendered obviously much smaller here where the order requiring the new submission was so far discretionary as to make reversal unlikely, even though we might have ruled otherwise in the first instance. And continuance of the arbitration, turning here essentially only on the amount of the damage, is likely to render present objections moot and fairly academic. The delay already in excess of eight months to press this interlocutory appeal shows the disruptive possibilities to the administrative process of encouragement to appellants such as petitioners here. Error, if any, is.fully correctable upon appeal after final judgment; there is no reason for precipitate appellate interference by mandamus or otherwise, In re Chappell & Co., 1 Cir. 201 F.2d 343; and the new arbitration should now go forward wjthout delay.
  Appeal dismissed.'
  . The New York statute, N.Y.C.P.A. § 1459, which provides, as does the federal Act, 9 U.S.C.A. § 6, that any application to the court shall be made and heard, unless otherwise provided, as are “motions,” takes the additional precaution of defining arbitration as a “special proceeding,” obviously in the light of the distinction made between “action” and “special proceeding” in N. Y. General Construction Law §§ 11 — a, 46-a. The broad definition of action in F.R. 2, and see also F.R. 1, makes such a differentiation unnecessary federalwise.
  . We need not stop to consider whether this is entirely an admiralty procedure to which the civil rules are inapplicable, since the admiralty rule as to vacating judgments is certainly not dissimilar. See, e.g., W. E. Hedger Transp. Corp. v. Ira S. Bushey & Sons, 2 Cir, 155 F.2d 321, 323, certiorari denied 329 U.S. 735, 67 S.Ct. 100, 91 L.Ed. 635. (The time limitation by local rule therein referred to lias been eliminated in later rules revisions because of F.R. 6 [c] and 28 U. S.C. § 452.) F.R. 60(b) is one of the rules recommended for adoption in admiralty in a report of a committee of the Maritime Law Association of the United States in its Doc. No. 363, Sept. 1952, p. 3613.
instruction: What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
  Intervenors who participated as parties at the courts of appeals should be counted as either appellants or respondents when it can be determined whose position they supported. For example, if there were two plaintiffs who lost in district court, appealed, and were joined by four intervenors who also asked the court of appeals to reverse the district court, the number of appellants should be coded as six.
  In some cases there is some confusion over who should be listed as the appellant and who as the respondent. This confusion is primarily the result of the presence of multiple docket numbers consolidated into a single appeal that is disposed of by a single opinion. Most frequently, this occurs when there are cross appeals and/or when one litigant sued (or was sued by) multiple litigants that were originally filed in district court as separate actions. The coding rule followed in such cases should be to go strictly by the designation provided in the title of the case. The first person listed in the title as the appellant should be coded as the appellant even if they subsequently appeared in a second docket number as the respondent and regardless of who was characterized as the appellant in the opinion.
  To clarify the coding conventions, consider the following hypothetical case in which the US Justice Department sues a labor union to strike down a racially discriminatory seniority system and the corporation (siding with the position of its union) simultaneously sues the government to get an injunction to block enforcement of the relevant civil rights law. From a district court decision that consolidated the two suits and declared the seniority system illegal but refused to impose financial penalties on the union, the corporation appeals and the government and union file cross appeals from the decision in the suit brought by the government. Assume the case was listed in the Federal Reporter as follows:
  United States of America,
  Plaintiff, Appellant
  v
  International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
  Defendant, Appellee.
  International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
  Defendants, Cross-appellants
  v
  United States of America.
  Widgets, Inc. & Susan Kuersten Sheehan, President & Chairman
  of the Board
  Plaintiff, Appellants,
  v
  United States of America,
  Defendant, Appellee.
  This case should be coded as follows:Appellant = United States, Respondents = International Brotherhood of Widget Workers Widgets, Inc., Total number of appellants = 1, Number of appellants that fall into the category "the federal government, its agencies, and officials" = 1, Total number of respondents = 3, Number of respondents that fall into the category "private business and its executives" = 2, Number of respondents that fall into the category "groups and associations" = 1.
  Note that if an individual is listed by name, but their appearance in the case is as a government official, then they should be counted as a government rather than as a private person. For example, in the case "Billy Jones & Alfredo Ruiz v Joe Smith" where Smith is a state prisoner who brought a civil rights suit against two of the wardens in the prison (Jones & Ruiz), the following values should be coded: number of appellants that fall into the category "natural persons" =0 and number that fall into the category "state governments, their agencies, and officials" =2. A similar logic should be applied to businesses and associations. Officers of a company or association whose role in the case is as a representative of their company or association should be coded as being a business or association rather than as a natural person. However, employees of a business or a government who are suing their employer should be coded as natural persons. Likewise, employees who are charged with criminal conduct for action that was contrary to the company policies should be considered natural persons.
  If the title of a case listed a corporation by name and then listed the names of two individuals that the opinion indicated were top officers of the same corporation as the appellants, then the number of appellants should be coded as three and all three were coded as a business (with the identical detailed code). Similar logic should be applied when government officials or officers of an association were listed by name.
  Your specific task is to determine the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "private business and its executives". If the total number cannot be determined (e.g., if the appellant is listed as "Smith, et. al." and the opinion does not specify who is included in the "et.al."), then answer 99.