Opinion
No. 05-55405.
This panel unanimously finds this case suitable for decision without oral argument. Fed.R.App.P. 34(a)(2).
Filed March 14, 2007.
Norman J. Baer, Esq., Anthony Ostlund Baer, P.A., Minneapolis, MN, Jodi Cohen, Esq., Mauricio J. Rauld, Esq., Keesal Young Logan, Long Beach, CA, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Peter R. Afrasiabi, Esq., Christopher W. Arledge, Turner Green Afrasiabi Arledge, LLP, Costa Mesa, CA, for Defendant-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California, James V. Selna, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-04-01470-JVS.
Before: FERNANDEZ, GRABER, and IKUTA, Circuit Judges.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
Plaintiff Achieve Software Corporation, an Indiana corporation, and Defendant Garg Data International, Inc., a California corporation, entered into a 1997 "Software License and Service Agreement" in which they promised to settle all contractual disputes through arbitration. Garg filed a demand for arbitration of a contractual dispute in 2003. The arbitrator issued a ruling in favor of Achieve. Garg challenges the validity of the arbitrator's ruling on the ground that Achieve was ineligible to participate in arbitration because it had failed to pay California franchise taxes in 2000.
A foreign corporation that fails to pay California franchise tax forfeits its right to exercise corporate powers within the state. Cal. Rev. Tax Code § 23301. Such forfeiture precludes the corporation from conducing intrastate business in California. See Cal. Corp. Code § 2203(c). But "[m]aintaining or defending any action or suit or any administrative or arbitration proceeding, or effecting settlement thereof or the settlement of claims or disputes" is not "intrastate business." See Cal. Corp. Code § 191(c)(1). Achieve was a corporation in good standing in Indiana at the time of the arbitration. Its failure to pay a state tax in California did not render it ineligible to participate in an arbitration conducted pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act. 9 U.S.C. § 10(a).
AFFIRMED.