Sanker v. Brown

Opinion

JOHNSON, J.

Defendant Brown appeals from an order denying his motion to vacate the arbitration award in favor of plaintiff Sanker. We reverse and remand with directions.

Facts and Proceedings Below

Larry Brown and Patricia Sanker purchased a residence in joint tenancy. They were never married but they lived together as man and wife for a short time and made the residence their home. After they separated, Sanker filed suit seeking a partition sale of the residence. Brown cross-complained for a declaration of a resulting trust in the property.

Notice of arbitration conference was sent to plaintiff pursuant to section 1141.10 et seq. of the Code of Civil Procedure and rule 1600 et seq. of the California Rules of Court.

1

The parties, through their respective counsel, responded to this notice by filing a stipulation re arbitration in which they stipulated the case would be arbitrated in accordance with rule 1600 et seq. The stipulation also contained a provision in which the parties waived their right to a trial de novo. (See § 1141.20 and rule 1616.)

[1146]

An arbitration hearing was held resulting in an award of judgment in favor of Sanker directing Brown to sell the property and share the net proceeds equally with her.

Within the applicable time limit, Brown filed a request for trial de novo. The trial court rejected the request on the basis of the stipulation which purported to waive both parties’ right to a trial. Brown then moved to set aside the arbitration award on the ground he had never agreed to waive his right to a trial de novo and his attorney’s stipulation waiving his right to trial was the result of mistake or inadvertence. Declarations filed by Brown and his attorney supported Brown’s contentions. Brown testified, “. . . I never understood this to be a binding arbitration” and “I was told . . . that the arbitration opinion would be advisory only and that no partition sale could result from the arbitrator’s award.” Brown’s former attorney testified, “I did not intend for the arbitration to be binding. My objective, as discussed with [plaintiff’s attorney] was to obtain an advisory ruling from an impartial third party .... The Stipulation submitting the matter to arbitration was prepared by [plaintiff’s attorney]. I did not notice at the time the matter was submitted that it was a binding arbitration. This was a mistake on my part which was purely inadvertent.” There is no credible evidence countering these declarations. Brown alleged other irregularities in the arbitration procedure but because of our decision on his first point we deem it unnecessary to reach the others.