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The Texas Court of Appeals held that a trial court abused its discretion when it failed to rule on a motion to compel arbitration despite six months of repeated requests for a ruling.
In In re Shredder Company, L.L.C., No. 08-06-00179-CV, 2006 WL 3234186 (Tex. Ct. App. Nov. 9, 2006), Cuevas sued Shredder, his employer, seeking recovery for work-related injuries. Shredder filed a motion to compel arbitration pursuant to an arbitration agreement that Cuevas allegedly signed. In opposing the motion, Cuevas denied signing the arbitration agreement.
At three separate hearings, Shredder asked the trial court to rule on the motion to compel, but the trial court never made a ruling. Shredder thus sought a writ of mandamus directing the trial court to order arbitration.
In deciding Shredder’s request for mandamus relief, the Court held that the trial court abused its discretion by failing to rule on the motion to compel arbitration, which had been pending for six months. However, the Court declined to reach the merits of the motion to compel arbitration, since the trial court never decided the issue. Accordingly, the Court conditionally granted a writ of mandamus, which would issue only if the trial court failed to rule on the motion to compel.
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