Arbitration, Compelling, Plaintiff Must Initiate Arbitration After Order Compelling It, 1, 2
After the trial court granted defendant employer’s motion to compel arbitration, neither party took any step to initiate the arbitration. Eventually, the trial court entered an order vacating its prior stay of litigation pending arbitration, holding that it was the employer/defendant’s burden to commence the arbitration since it had moved to compel arbitration. Held, reversed. The trial court erred in holding it was employer/defendant’s burden to commence arbitration. The arbitration agreement clearly placed the burden on the party with a claim to submit that claim to arbitration. Only the plaintiff employees had any claim. It was their burden to initiate the arbitration. The order vacating the stay of litigation had the same effect as an order denying a motion to compel arbitration and so was appealable.