Prewitt

INTRODUCTION

This is an appeal from the trial court’s denial of a petition to compel arbitration. Because substantial evidence supports the trial court’s determination the parties seeking to compel arbitration had waived the right to do so, we affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL SUMMARY

On September 12, 2011, Gina Castleberry Prewitt (Prewitt) and her husband Adrian Prewitt filed a complaint against Weight Loss Centers; 1-800-GET-THIN; Marvin Anton Perer, M.D.; Valencia Ambulatory Surgery Center, LLC; Top Surgeons, LLC; and New Life Surgery Center.1 According to the complaint, Gina Prewitt underwent an endoscopic screening procedure for the laparoscopic gastric band surgery known as “lap band” at Valencia Ambulatory Surgery Center.2 On September 12, 2010, she alleged, she discovered the endoscopic procedure had caused a large tear in her esophagus when she “wound up” in the emergency room of a Kaiser Foundation hospital. Prewitt alleged her first cause of action for medical malpractice against Marvin Anton Perer, M.D., and New Life Surgery Center, Inc. alone; the sixth cause of action for loss of consortium was alleged as to all defendants. (Neither Perer nor New Life Surgery Center…