Procedural Posture

Plaintiff orthopedic surgeons sued defendant medical device company and other defendants for, among other things, breach of contract and fraud. Defendants petitioned to compel arbitration, alleging the existence of a written agreement to arbitrate. The Orange County Superior Court, California, denied defendants' petition, finding that the petition failed to satisfy the requirements of Code Civ. Proc., § 1281.2. Defendants appealed.

 

Overview

The complaint alleged that plaintiffs entered into four separate but identical agreements with defendants for the development of an orthopedic spinal medical device. The court concluded that defendants' petition to compel arbitration was properly denied because defendants failed to affirmatively allege the existence of a written agreement to arbitrate. Defendants failed to satisfy the most basic statutory prerequisite to granting the petition - to allege the existence of a written agreement to arbitrate. Children Abandonment occurs when a parent, guardian, or person in charge of a child either deserts a child without any regard for the child's. Defendants could not rely on the allegations in the complaint to meet their pleading burden. Although defendants contended that the denial of their petition to compel arbitration was improper, at least in part, because they did not deny the existence of a written agreement with one of the surgeons, this argument failed for two reasons. First, defendants did not affirmatively allege a written agreement with this surgeon. Second, defendants' memorandum in support of their petition to compel arbitration demonstrated otherwise. Because defendants contested the existence of "any" written agreements with plaintiffs at the trial level, they could not argue otherwise on appeal.

 

Outcome

The order denying defendants' petition to compel arbitration was affirmed.