Cook

This is the second time petitioners have been before this court seeking either a writ of mandate or of prohibition or of certiorari concerning actions filed in Orange County and Los Angeles County. The controversy began with the execution of three contracts, (1) Plans and Specifications Agreement, (2) Construction Agreement, and (3) Financing Agreement, between petitioners and respondents Houston-California Investment Corporation and MacDonald Construction Company, for the construction of a convalescent hospital in Signal *623 Hill, Los Angeles County. Differences between the parties soon followed the signing of the three agreements, and actions were filed in Orange and Los Angeles Counties.

Petitioners, Cook and Young, first filed an action in Orange County, to which respondents Houston and MacDonald countered with a petition for an order directing arbitration pursuant to an arbitration clause in the construction agreement. The petition for arbitration was granted, arbitration was ordered, and all other proceedings were stayed. Thereafter several mechanics’ lien actions were filed in Los Angeles County, and petitioners filed cross-complaints in each one incorporating, among…