Beta Madison v. MGP Murrieta CA4/1

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff John Cherrington and defendant Randy Weisser once jointly owned a series of interrelated business entities. In 2021, Cherrington and Weisser entered a dissolution agreement that divided the joint holdings in a way that each business would be separately owned either by Cherrington or Weisser. The dissolution agreement contains an arbitration provision. Years later, Cherrington (and one of the entities allocated to him under the dissolution agreement) sued Weisser and several other defendants for alleged misconduct in connection with the management of a limited partnership. Cherrington and Weisser did not directly hold a joint ownership interest in that limited partnership; however, one of the entities that Cherrington and Weisser once jointly owned held a minority interest in the limited partnership. Based on that connection, Weisser and several defendants moved to compel arbitration of the claims in this lawsuit under the arbitration provision in the Cherrington/Weisser dissolution agreement. The trial court denied the motion to compel, finding that the plaintiffs’ claims arose under the limited partnership agreement (which does not contain an…