Albers v. Naegele
Appellants Timothy D. Naegele and his law firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, appeal from the judgment confirming an attorney-client fee arbitration award in favor of respondents Raymond H. Albers and Deanna J. Albers.[1] Following Naegele’s representation of the Alberses in a civil action, a fee dispute arose between the parties. The Alberses invoked their statutory right to arbitrate the dispute pursuant to California’s Mandatory Fee Arbitration Act (MFAA; Bus. & Prof. Code,[2] § 6200 et. seq.), but Naegele refused to attend the arbitration, claiming the arbitrators lacked jurisdiction over the dispute based on a forum selection clause in the fee agreement. After the arbitrators issued an award in the Alberses’ favor, Naegele filed a rejection of the award and request for trial in a pending federal action that he had brought against the Alberses in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Over the next four years, the federal court stayed that action at various times without reaching the merits of Naegele’s request for trial after arbitration or the Alberses’ motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.
Shortly before the expiration of the four-year statute of limitations (Code Civ. Proc., § 1288), while the federal action was being stayed, the Alberses filed a petition to confirm the arbitration award in a new action commenced in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Naegele subsequently filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings in which he contended that the California action was barred as a matter of law by the Alberses’ failure to timely serve him with the petition and by the federal court’s exclusive jurisdiction over the dispute based on the forum selection clause in the fee agreement and Naegele’s filing of the request for trial in the federal action. The state trial court denied Naegele’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and thereafter granted the Alberses’ petition to confirm the arbitration award. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.
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