Tarrant Bell Property, LLC v. Superior Court

Endeman, Lincoln, Turek & Heater, James Allen, Henry E. Heater and Linda B. Reich for Real Parties in Interest.

It is undisputed that a trial court may, in its discretion, refuse to compel arbitration between contracting parties where there are other individuals suing over the same matter and separate arbitration and court actions risk conflicting rulings on a common issue of law or fact. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1281.2, subd. (c).) The question presented here is whether the trial court is vested with comparable discretion when asked to compel a different form of alternative dispute resolution, trial by a private referee. (Code Civ. Proc., § 638 et seq.) We conclude that the answer is yes.

There are several forms of alternative dispute resolution that contracting parties may use to settle disputes arising under their contract, including arbitration (Code Civ. Proc., § 1280 et seq.) and trial by a referee (Code Civ. Proc., § 638 et seq.). Statutory law provides that an agreement to submit a controversy to arbitration "shall" be enforced unless specified circumstances exist. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1281.2.) Among those circumstances: the court may refuse to enforce the…