Source: http://marcusmediation.com/arbitration-insight-22/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 02:57:08+00:00

Document:
Not infrequently, where an arbitration agreement exists, a defendant will move to compel arbitration when a plaintiff has filed a complaint in the trial court. (An action to compel arbitration is in essence a suit to compel specific performance of a contractual term. [See Freeman v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. (1975) 14 Cal.3d 473, 479].) Plaintiffs, who don’t want to concede the motion, may argue, inter alia, that the defendant has waived the right to arbitrate the dispute. The following is a cursory review of the waiver argument.
Examples of conduct inconsistent with an intent to invoke arbitration: The following three cases were discussed in Service Employees International Union, Local 1021 v. San Joaquin County (2011) 202 Cal. App.4th 449, 460: Case v. Kodota Fig Assn. (1950) 35 Cal.2d 596, 605–606 (moving party pursued a lawsuit on the same issue as that to be arbitrated); Local 659, I.A.T.S.E. v. Color Corp. of America (1956) 47 Cal.2d 189, 197–198 (express refusal to participate in arbitration in order to seek ruling by the Labor Commissioner) and Bodine v. United Aircraft Corp. (1976) 52 Cal.App.3d 940, 945–946 (failed to demand arbitration on the rationale that it would have been stayed in any event by collateral litigation). Sobremonte v. Superior Court (1998) 61 Cal.App.4th 980, cited with approval in Saint Agnes Medical Center v. Pacificare of California (2003) 31 Cal. 4th 1187, 1196, discussed waiver examples including that the parties “were well into preparation of a lawsuit” before the moving party notified the opposing party of an intent to arbitrate and a defendant seeking arbitration filed a counterclaim without asking for a stay of the proceedings. Saint Agnes Medical Center, on the other hand, holds that Pacificare’s filing of a separate lawsuit against St. Agnes did not preclude it from moving to compel arbitration.

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