Monarch v. Petra

Summary

The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Petra’s motion to stay proceedings and compel arbitration. The Court held that Petra waived arbitration because it knew of the arbitration right, reentered the litigation without asserting that right in its stipulated motion to set aside default or its original answer, and prejudiced Monarch by inducing it to surrender the default and litigate the case. The Court declined to decide whether the federal waiver approach discussed in Morgan required modification of Montana’s waiver test.