Horvitz & Levy LLP represented the bankruptcy trustee for the Estate of Grover Joseph Harvey McCoy in this case arising out of a dispute between McCoy and football star-turned-actor Brian "The Boz" Bosworth and his wife over the construction of the Bosworths' $1.6 million Malibu estate. The Court of Appeal's decision reversed a $2.5 million arbitration award in favor of the Bosworths.

The dispute had been submitted to arbitration pursuant to the parties' contractual agreement. When the Bosworths became dissatisfied over the length of the arbitration proceedings, they petitioned the court to impose an arbitration deadline. The court did so, and when the arbitrator could not promise completion of the arbitrator, the court removed the arbitrator under Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.6, which allows the court to appoint a new arbitrator when the current arbitrator "fails to act." McCoy declined to arbitrate before the new arbitrator, who rendered a $2.5 million award in the Bosworths' favor.

The Court of Appeal reversed the judgment confirming the arbitration award. The court held that the trial court had authority under Code of Civil Procedure section 1283.8 to impose an arbitration deadline, disagreeing with two prior decisions, Titan/Value Equities Group, Inc. v. Superior Court (1994) 29 Cal.App.4th 482 and Blake v. Ecker (2001) 93 Cal.App.4th 728, which held there was no statutory authority for a court to impose a deadline. Nonetheless, the Court of Appeal held the trial court lacked authority to remove the arbitrator because his reluctance to guarantee compliance with the arbitration deadline was not a "failure to act." "On the entire record, there is simply no basis to deprive McCoy of the right to challenge the unauthorized appointment of Judge Perez," Justice Willhite wrote. "Because Judge Perez was not empowered to act as arbitrator, his award was of no effect, and the judgment entered on it must be reversed."

A Los Angeles Daily Journal write-up of the decision contained this lead: "A judge's effort to kick-start a slow-moving arbitration cost a Hollywood actor and his attorney a $2.5 million victory in a construction dispute, when an appellate court ruled the arbitrator was prematurely kicked off the case." (Judge's Efforts Cost Actor $2.5 Million Victory, Los Angeles Daily Journal (Jan. 9, 2006), p. 3.)

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