Brown

Under the California Arbitration Act (CAA) (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 1280-1294.2), a petition or response seeking to correct or vacate an arbitration award must be brought in the superior court within 100 days after service of a signed copy of the award (id., § 1288), while a petition to confirm the award may be brought within four years after service (ibid.). (Section references are to the Code of Civil Procedure unless otherwise indicated.)

Here, the arbitrator issued an award in favor of plaintiff. Defendants did not file a petition or response in the trial court to correct or vacate the award within the 100-day period. (See §§ 1285-1286.8.) Three weeks after the period expired, plaintiff filed a petition to confirm the award. In their response, defendants challenged the award as invalid. The trial court entered judgment confirming the award;

We conclude that, because defendants did not bring a timely petition or response to correct or vacate the award, the trial court had no choice but to disregard defendants’ challenge and “confirm the award as made.” (§ 1286.) We therefore affirm.

I

BACKGROUND

The following allegations and facts are taken from the complaint and the…