Arbitration & Mediation

Fourth DCA Holds A Stay is NOT Required While A Motion to Compel Arbitration is on Appeal

By Christopher B. Hopkins, Esq.

Sometimes technicalities can override common sense. Such may be the case in Open MRI of Okeechobee, LLC, Andrew S. Galant, Andrew T. Walker and Henry R. Zayas v. Peter Aldana, Iqbal Ahmed, and John Chang.

We do not know the nature of the dispute but we do know the defendants lost a motion to compel arbitration and appealed. The plaintiffs then pushed forward at the trial level and the defendants moved for a stay pending appeal which was... denied.

Florida Statute 682.03(3) holds that there must be a stay if there was an application or order for arbitration. The Fourth DCA indicated that "application" meant "motion" under the Arbitration Code. So, there is a statutory stay while a motion for arbitration is pending. The court declined to expand that language.

Instead, the court held that section 682.20(1)(a) dealt with appeals, which should follow Fla.R.App.P. 9.310(a) which holds that a stay of a final or non-final order is up to the trial judge.

Practice Tip: We typically file both a motion to compel arbitration AND a separate motion for protective order seeking a stay and permitting discovery limited to arbitration. The latter motion is typically resolved via agreed order and, in our mind, exists to prevent the opposing party from claiming that we somehow committed waiver. Under this case, arguably, such a motion is not necessary since a pending motion to compel stays the case; then again, if that were true, you would need court authority to undertake arbitration-related discovery. On the back end of the arbitration hearing, the defendant/appellant had best hope that either the trial court grants the stay OR the plaintiff does not realize they can proceed with their case.

Full post as published by Florida Arbitration Law on January 04, 2008 (boomark / email).