Bosworth

INTRODUCTION

Robert S. Whitmore, chapter 7 trustee for the estate of defendant Grover Joseph Harvey McCoy, prosecutes this appeal from a judgment confirming an arbitration award against McCoy and codefendant McCoy Creative Contractors and Interiors, Inc. The judgment found McCoy and the corporation liable to plaintiffs Brian K. and Katherine Bosworth for damages of $2,067,860.43, and attorney fees and costs of $494,829.43.

We hold that absent a completion date set by agreement, Code of Civil Procedure section 1283.8 gives the trial court the authority, on petition by a party to the arbitration, to set a date by which the arbitration proceeding must be concluded. Although the better practice is to set the date when the case is first ordered to arbitration, the court has discretion to entertain a petition to set a completion date while the arbitration is in progress. To the extent the decisions in Titan/Value Equities Group, Inc. v. Superior Court (1994) 29 Cal.App.4th 482 [ 35 Cal.Rptr.2d 4 ] (Titan/Value), and Blake v. Ecker (2001) 93 Cal.App.4th 728 [ 113 Cal.Rptr.2d 422 ] (Blake), disapproved on another ground in Le Francois v. Goel (2005) 35 Cal.4th 1094, 1107 ,…