TENTATIVE RULING

Petitioner Cardinal Financial Company, Limited Partnership’s Petition to Confirm Contractual Arbitration Award is GRANTED.

The Court will enter the proposed judgment on this date.

Petitioner Cardinal Financial Company, Limited Partnership to give notice. 

Petitioner Cardinal Financial Company, Limited Partnership (“Petitioner”) obtained a Final Arbitration Award on May 28, 2024, which required Respondent Vanessa Mosqueda (“Respondent”) to pay Petitioner the amount of $33,420.37 with interest, plus attorney fees and costs of $18,365.00, with administrative fees, compensation, and expenses of arbitration to be borne as incurred. Petitioner moves the Court to confirm the Final Arbitration Award, which also includes a statement that the award is in full settlement of all claims submitted for decision in the arbitration proceeding. As an initial matter, the Court notes that Respondent did not file an opposition. While the moving party generally bears the initial burden of proof on its motion, and lack of opposition will not automatically entitle the moving party to prevail on its motion, a party’s failure to file an opposition can be considered a concession that the motion is meritorious. (See Sexton v. Superior Court (1997) 58 Cal.App.4th 1403, 1410.)

Petitioner served a copy of the petition to confirm arbitration award and a written notice of the time and place for the hearing by electronic mail and substituted service; while the arbitration agreement does not provide the manner in which service shall be made, service by substituted service was proper here. (See Code Civ. Proc., § 1290.4, subd. (c).) Petitioner has also provided a copy of the arbitration agreement (Pet. ¶ 4(b), Ex. 4(b); Code Civ. Proc., § 1285.4, subd. (a)), the name of the arbitrator (Pet. ¶ 6; Code Civ. Proc., § 1285.4, subd. (b)), and the Final Arbitration Award (Pet. ¶ 8(c), Ex. 8(c); Code Civ. Proc., § 1285.4, subd. (c)). Petitioner also served the present petition to confirm the arbitration award at least ten days and less than four years after service of a signed copy of the Final Arbitration Award date May 28, 2024. (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 1288, 1288.4.)

Accordingly, Petitioner has fully satisfied the requirements for its petition to confirm the arbitration award. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1285, et. seq.) Thus, Petitioner Cardinal Financial Company, Limited Partnership’s Petition to Confirm Contractual Arbitration Award is GRANTED. The Court will enter the proposed judgment on this date.