Allstate Insurance v. Superior Court

This is an appeal from a nonappealable order granting a petition to vacate an arbitration award and ordering further proceedings before the same arbitrator. We treat the appeal as a petition for a writ of mandate, direct the court to correct the arbitration award to conform to the parties’ agreement, and issue a writ commanding the trial court to vacate its order.

FACTS

A.

The 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged a hillside house owned by Raymond M. Jessel and Cynthia Thompson (collectively Jessel). Jessel submitted two claims under his homeowner’s policy to Allstate Insurance Company, neither of which was resolved to his satisfaction. In 1998, Jessel sued Allstate for breach of contract, bad faith, and fraud. Allstate removed the case to the United States District Court.

In 2000, Jessel and Allstate (with both sides represented by counsel) signed a 13-page “Mediation and Arbitration Agreement” in which they agreed to dismiss Jessel’s lawsuit, mediate their dispute and, if that failed, to “submit their dispute to binding arbitration” presided over by one of five named retired judges who would be “randomly selected” by the parties or, if that didn’t work, by another…