Gonzalez

Plaintiff and appellant Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate), a corporation, appeals a judgment denying its prayer for declaratory relief.

Defendant and appellant Daniel Gonzalez (Gonzalez) cross-appeals the judgment.

The essential issues presented are whether Gonzalez’s uninsured motorist claim against Allstate is barred by the statute of limitations or by his unreasonable delay in filing a demand for arbitration.

The applicable four-year statute of limitations for petitioning to compel arbitration of an uninsured motorist claim (Code Civ. Proc., § 337) does not begin to run until the insurance company refuses to arbitrate. (Spear v. California State Auto. Assn. (1992) 2 Cal.4th 1035, 1040-1043 [ 9 Cal.Rptr.2d 381 , 831 P.2d 821 ].) Because the record establishes there was no refusal by Allstate to arbitrate prior to its filing of a declaratory relief action in 1992, Gonzalez was not barred by the four-year statute of limitations from bringing a petition to compel arbitration.

However, the record also establishes unreasonable delay by Gonzalez in filing a demand for arbitration. Therefore, Gonzalez is deemed to have waived his right to arbitration of his uninsured…