Opinion
April 1, 1996
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Rockland County (Bergerman, J.).
Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, the petition is denied, the proceeding is dismissed, and the parties are directed to proceed to arbitration.
"A stay of arbitration on the ground that demand was ineffectual is * * * improper in a case such as this where petitioner obviously had actual notice of the demand to arbitrate and an opportunity, via this proceeding to stay arbitration, to judicially review its threshold objections to arbitrability" ( Matter of Initial Trends [Campus Outfitters], 58 N.Y.2d 896, 898). Indeed, the petitioners have never claimed that a valid arbitration agreement had not been made or complied with ( see, CPLR 7503 [c]). Accordingly, the Supreme Court improperly granted the petition to stay arbitration. O'Brien, J.P., Ritter, Hart and Goldstein, JJ., concur.