California Supreme Court Watch

#23-148 Ford Motor Warranty Cases, S279969. (B312261; 89 Cal.App.5th 1324; Los Angeles County Superior Court; BC596216.) Petition for review after the Court of Appeal affirmed an order denying a motion to compel arbitration. The court limited review to the following issue: Do manufacturers’ express or implied warranties that accompany a vehicle at the time of sale constitute obligations arising from the sale contract, permitting manufacturers to enforce an arbitration agreement in the contract pursuant to equitable estoppel?

Petition for review granted; issues limited: 7/19/2023

Case fully briefed: 4/04/2024

Cause argued and submitted: 4/08/2025

Opinion filed: Judgment affirmed in full: 7/03/2025

See the Court of Appeal Opinion.

See the Petition for Review.

See the Oral Argument.

See the California Supreme Court Opinion.  (Ford Motor Warranty Cases (2025) 17 Cal.5th 1122.)

“Ford seeks to invoke an arbitration clause in a dispute flowing, not from the contract where the arbitration clause appears, but from obligations imposed by statute or conventional fraud duties.  As plaintiffs’ claims are not intimately founded in or intertwined with the sales contracts, plaintiffs should not be estopped from pursuing their remedies against Ford in court.  The Court of Appeal’s judgment is affirmed.”

Justice Corrigan authored the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Guerrero and Justices Liu, Kruger, Groban, Jenkins, and Evans concurred.