DMS Services, LLC v. Superior Court

DMS Services, LLC, Diversified Maintenance Services, Inc., DMS Facility Services, LLC, and DMS Facility Services, Inc. (collectively DMS), petitioned this court for a writ of mandate seeking to vacate the trial court’s order compelling arbitration of its cause of action for breach of contract and related claims against Zurich Services Corporation (ZSC), the third party administrator for DMS’s workers’ compensation insurance claims, *1349 and its cause of action for declaratory relief against Zurich American Insurance Company and American Zurich Insurance Company (collectively Zurich Insurance). The court ordered arbitration of each of those claims based on an arbitration clause in DMS’s workers’ compensation insurance agreements with Zurich Insurance. Even though ZSC was not a signatory of the insurance agreements, the court concluded ZSC could compel arbitration under the doctrine of equitable estoppel. Because DMS is not an agent or alter ego of Zurich Insurance and its claims against ZSC are not founded upon, or inextricably intertwined with, the insurance agreements containing the arbitration provision, the trial court erred in compelling arbitration of the claims…