Ford Motor Warranty Cases

Opinion of the Court by Corrigan, J.

Plaintiffs in these consolidated cases bought cars from various dealerships, signing sales contracts that included an arbitration provision. Alleging defects in the cars they purchased, plaintiffs sued. But they did not sue the dealerships. Instead they sued the manufacturer, Ford Motor Company (Ford), alleging Ford violated its own express and implied warranties and engaged in fraudulent concealment. Ford claims it is entitled to compel arbitration by relying on an arbitration clause in the sales contracts between the buyers and seller dealerships. Although acknowledging that arbitration agreements are creatures of contract, and it was not a party to these sales contracts, Ford argues plaintiffs should be estopped from pursuing their remedies in court under an approach put forward in Metalclad Corp. v. Ventana Environmental Organizational Partnership (2003) 109 Cal.App.4th 1705, 1717 (Metalclad) and its progeny. Under that analysis, in limited circumstances, if a plaintiff sues a third party to assert a claim that is “ ‘intimately founded in and intertwined with’ ” a contractual provision, that third party may move to compel arbitration of…