Pardee Construction Co. v. Superior Court

In this matter arising from construction defect litigation in the superior court, petitioner Pardee Construction Company (Pardee) seeks a writ of mandate directing the court to vacate an order denying Pardee’s motion for stay of the proceedings and appointment of a judicial referee. Pardee contends the court erred in concluding provisions in Pardee’s agreements with real parties in interest Ivan Ernesto. Rodriguez et al. (together plaintiffs) that required the parties to submit their disputes to judicial reference were unconscionable and contrary to statutory law/public policy. Concluding the court properly denied Pardee’s motion, we deny the petition.

I

Introduction

This case involves seven detached single-family “entry-level” residences built in the late 1990’s in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego. In buying those homes from Pardee, plaintiffs signed agreements entitled “Offer to Purchase and Escrow Instructions.” Each agreement contained a paragraph 15 entitled “Judicial Reference—Trial by Judge in Court of Competent Jurisdiction-Waiver of Trial by Jury.” Printed entirely in capital letters and single-spaced, paragraph 15 presented the appearance of a dense block of…