§ 1273.030.Rules Applicable to Agreements

This section wires Chapter 12's specialized arbitration option into the general arbitration statute, while carving out the adjustments eminent domain practice requires. Except where this chapter specifically says otherwise, arbitration agreements made under it are governed by Title 9, the general statute on arbitration.

Timing is flexible: an agreement to arbitrate compensation can be made whether or not an eminent domain proceeding has already been filed. If a proceeding has been or is later commenced, any petition or response about the arbitration gets filed and decided within that same proceeding, rather than as a separate case.

Subdivision (c) addresses a tension that could otherwise arise. Ordinarily, an arbitration agreement can restrict a party's ability to pursue litigation over the same dispute. Not here -- an arbitration agreement under this chapter doesn't waive or restrict the power to commence and prosecute an eminent domain proceeding, including taking possession before judgment. The one check: on a party's motion, the court must stay the determination of compensation until any petition to compel arbitration is resolved, and, if arbitration is ordered, until that arbitration concludes.

Subdivision (d) protects the agreement's enforceability against a particular challenge -- a claim that the acquiring party lacks the power or capacity to condemn the property doesn't defeat or impair the arbitration agreement. And subdivision (e) sets venue: despite the general arbitration venue rules, any petition relating to Chapter 12 arbitration must be filed in the superior court of the county where the property, or any part of it, is located.