Currency

BACKGROUND

Appellant Currency Corporation (Currency) made scores of small loans to a borrower, respondent Maibell Page, over the course of a dozen years, each memorialized by a note and secured by Page’s income. Of all the notes memorializing loans, only one contained an arbitration provision. Page and her assignee, respondent Wertheim, LLC, (collectively “Page”), instituted arbitration proceedings against Currency pursuant to that one note, and the arbitrators determined that the provision in that note applied to all the other notes. The arbitrators then determined Currency violated the terms of every note, and awarded Page $672,122. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County confirmed the award, and Currency appealed. During the pendency of the appeal, Page filed a motion in the trial court to disqualify Currency’s counsel, Michael Resch and Mayer Brown, LLP. The trial court granted the motion, and Currency appealed that order as well. In the meantime, we concluded the arbitration provision pertained to only the note that contained it, and reversed the order confirming the $672,122 award. The trial court subsequently dismissed the action. Although the disqualification order and…