In United Firefighters of Los Angeles v. City of Los Angeles (1991) 231 Cal.App.3d 1576, in the course of a lengthy opinion, the Court of Appeal held that the failure by the city to timely request vacation of the arbitration award did not prohibit it from arguing on appeal that the firefighter lacked standing to lodge a grievance subject to arbitration. Put otherwise, the court held that the city was not required to attempt to vacate the award to argue that arbitration should not have been compelled: "We think it clear, however, appellants are not appealing the correctness of the award. Rather, they are attacking the authority of the trial court to compel them to submit the matter to arbitration. An order to compel arbitration is an interlocutory order which is appealable only from the judgment confirming the arbitration award, or in certain exceptional situations is reviewable by writ of mandate. As Professor Witkin has observed: 'A party does not waive his right to attack the order by proceeding to arbitration; the order is reviewable on appeal from a judgment confirming the award. .' . We also think it important to note that because appellants had nothing new to add to their opposition to the arbitration, requiring them to make a request to vacate the award would be a needless act and a waste of judicial resources." (Id. at pp. 1581-1582.)