Affirmative Defense of Arbitration Waived by Participation in Judicial Process

The Third Department determined that defendant waived a contractual provision requiring arbitration by participating in the judicial process:

…[W]hile defendant asserted the contractual arbitration provision as an affirmative defense in its answer, it did not move to stay the action and compel arbitration (see CPLR 7503 [a]).  Instead, it aggressively participated in the discovery process and received the benefit of extensive discovery from plaintiff, which would not otherwise have been available in arbitration … . In doing so, defendant’s acceptance of the judicial forum “manifested a preference ‘clearly inconsistent with . . . [a] claim that the parties were obligated to settle their differences by arbitration'” … .  Thus, we agree with Supreme Court’s determination that defendant’s actions resulted in a waiver of its right to compel arbitration … . Masson v Wiggins & Masson LLP…, 515340, 515427, 3rd Dept 10-31-13