What Can You Say When the Stay Gets Stayed?

Gastelum v. ReMax Int'l, No. B263213 (D2d5 Feb. 11, 2016)

An employment dispute gets compelled to arbitration, but the employer fails to front the costs, as required under Armendariz v. Foundation Health Psychcare Services, Inc., 24 Cal. 4th 83 (2000). So the arbitrator’s outfit refuses to proceed. Given that, the trial court lifts the stay pending arb. Defendant appeals.

But the order isn’t appealable. It is not the functional equivalent of the denial of a motion to compel arbitration, which is appealable by statute. Contrary to earlier cases, this wasn’t an order that affirmatively stayed an arbitration., but the converse: an order that found a continued stay of ligation to be inappropriate. That kind of order doesn’t fall within the scope of any category of statutorily appealable orders whether under the Arbitration Act or Code of Civil Procedure § 904.1, which lists the various authorized appeals. So this appeal gets dismissed.

Dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.