Allstate Insurance v. Superior Court

Petitioner seeks a writ of mandate or prohibition enjoining and restraining real parties in interest and the superior court from permitting arbitration of a matter now pending in San Francisco Superior Court.

On October 26, 1962, Allstate Insurance Company issued an automobile insurance policy to real party in interest Floyd R. Peterson; the policy period was one year. On November 9, 1962, within the effective date of the policy, Susan Peterson, a minor daughter of Floyd Peterson, was injured in an accident involving an uninsured motor vehicle. Allstate was advised of the uninsured status of the other automobile, and negotiations commenced between the real partes in interest and Allstate. On July 2, 1964, one year and eight months after the accident occurred, Allstate wrote a letter to counsel for the Petersons in which it offered to settle the uninsured motorist claim. The offer was apparently rejected by the Petersons, and nothing more in the case occurred until September 18, 1972, some eight years later, when counsel for the Petersons filed a demand for arbitration. On January 30, 1973, petitioner herein filed in the respondent court (San Francisco Superior Court) a…