DocRx, Inc., et al. v. Piedmont Comprehensive Pain Management Group, LLC [Ms. SC-2024-0264, Mar. 7, 2025] __ So. 3d __ (Ala. 2025). The Court (Sellers, J.; Stewart, C.J., and Wise, Mendheim, Cook, and McCool, JJ., concur; Shaw, J., concurs in part and concurs in the result; Mitchell, J., concurs in part and concurs in the result; Bryan, J., concurs in the result) reverses the Mobile Circuit Court’s order lifting a stay on litigation that had been entered following an order compelling arbitration. The dispute arose from a contractual arrangement between Piedmont Comprehensive Pain Management Group, LLC (“Piedmont”) and DocRx Dispensing, Inc. (“DRD”), which provided billing and collection services for Piedmont’s medication-dispensing program. Piedmont alleged that DRD and related entities had improperly withheld funds owed to Piedmont. Ms. **2-3.
During arbitration proceedings compelled pursuant to an unsigned April 2017 agreement, DRD located the August 2017 agreement, which was signed and contained an identical arbitration clause. DRD then contested the validity of the April 2017 agreement while still seeking to enforce arbitration. Piedmont responded by requesting that the arbitrator remand the case to the trial court, arguing that the defendant had compelled arbitration under an unenforceable contract. Ms. *5. The arbitrator ruled that the trial court must determine contract validity under Alabama law, allowing Piedmont to seek relief in the Mobile Circuit Court. Ms. **5-6.
The trial court subsequently lifted the stay, allowing litigation to proceed, prompting the defendant’s appeal. The Court held that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to lift the stay because its original order compelling arbitration pursuant to the April 2017 contract was a final judgment, and no timely appeal was filed. Ms. *12.