FRONTAGE ROAD PARTNERS, LLC, A FLORIDA LIMITED LIABILITY CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
CAROLYN D. MCMULLEN, APPELLEE
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Frontage Road Partners filed a circuit court complaint for specific performance of a real estate sales contract and recorded a lis pendens without simultaneously requesting arbitration, thereby waiving its contractual right to arbitrate the dispute with the seller. The appellate court affirmed the trial court's denial of the motion to compel arbitration, holding that filing a complaint and lis pendens without a concurrent request for stay and arbitration constitutes waiver of the arbitration clause.
A party waives its contractual right to arbitrate by filing a complaint and notice of lis pendens without simultaneously requesting a stay and order compelling arbitration. Although filing a complaint and lis pendens to protect real property interests is proper and necessary, it constitutes waiver of arbitration rights unless accompanied by a concurrent request for stay and arbitration.
[1] A party waives its contractual right to arbitration by filing a complaint and a notice of lis pendens without simultaneously requesting a stay and an order compelling arb…
[2] Filing a complaint and lis pendens to protect a right to purchase property is not inconsistent with a contractual right to arbitrate the underlying dispute, provided a re…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“a plaintiff waives a contractual right to arbitrate by filing a complaint and a notice of lis pendens without simultaneously requesting a stay and an order compelling arbitration”
Establishes the legal standard for waiver of arbitration rights through inconsistent litigation conduct
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceFrontage Road Partners, LLC, a buyer under a real estate sales contract with seller Carolyn D. McMullen, filed a complaint in circuit court seeking sp…
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CASANUEVA, Judge.
Frontage Road Partners, LLC, filed this nonfinal appeal pursuant to Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.130(a)(3)(C)(iv), when the trial court denied its motion to compel arbitration. The trial court found that Frontage Road Partners had waived its contractual right to arbitration by taking action inconsistent with that right, i.e., filing a complaint in the circuit court for specific performance of a real estate sales contract in which it was the buyer. Along with its complaint, Frontage Road Partners also filed a notice of lis pendens. We agree with our sister court’s opinion in Bonner v. RCC Associates, Inc., 679 So. 2d 794 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996), that a plaintiff waives a contractual right to arbitrate by filing a complaint and a notice of lis pendens without simultaneously requesting a stay and an order compelling arbitration.
Frontage Road Partners argues that it had to file the complaint in order to get a lis pendens so that the property would not be sold to a third party pending resolution of its dispute with the seller of the property, Carolyn D. McMullen. We do not disagree that it was proper to take such action. However, that action, while needed in such a case as this, is not inconsistent with a contractual right to arbitrate the dispute if a request for a stay and an order compelling arbitration accompanies the complaint. Filing a complaint and lis pen-dens to protect the right to buy the property or requesting arbitration pursuant to the sales contract are not mutually exclusive actions. The trial court based its order on several grounds. We do not address the other grounds but conclude that the action of filing a complaint and notice of lis pendens based on a contract without simultaneously requesting a stay and an order compelling arbitration waives that party’s contractual right to arbitrate.
Affirmed.
NORTHCUTT and CANADY, JJ., Concur.
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Carnival Corp. v. Booth, 946 So. 2d 1112 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006)…ke the third party defendant in Lapidus, Carnival did not file a motion for summary judgment “contesting] the merits of [the] claim” and did not in any manner seek affirmative relief from the State Court. In Frontage Road Partners, LLC v. McMullen, 934 So. 2d 629 (Fla. 2d DCA 2006), the plaintiff filed a complaint in the circuit court seeking the specific performance of a real estate contract. Thereafter, the plaintiff filed a motion to compel arbitration, which the trial court denied finding that the plaint…
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Pearson v. Peoples Nat'l Bank, 116 So. 3d 1283 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013)…ll controversies, claims, and other matters in question,” except disputes related to entitlement to deposits. It did so without simultaneously moving to request a stay and an order compelling arbitration. See Frontage Road Partners, LLC v. McMullen, 934 So. 2d 629 (Fla. 2d DCA 2006) (holding that action of filing a complaint and notice of lis pendens based on a contract without simultaneously requesting a stay and an order compelling arbitration waives that party’s contractual right to arbitrate); Bonner v. R…
Authorities Cited
- Bonner v. RCC Assocs., Inc., 679 So. 2d 794 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996)