HECHT, Justice.
This is a motion to stay a proposed arbitration and for other relief. Among the grounds urged in petitioner's brief and in his reply affidavits is the claim that respondent, a California corporation, was doing business in this state without a license at the time the contract containing the arbitration clause was entered into in this state and that, therefore, § 218 of the General Corporation Law prohibits respondent from initiating or prosecuting arbitration proceedings in this state. In the Matter of Vanguard Films, Inc. (Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Inc.), Mr. Justice Cohalan, 188 Misc. 796, 67 N.Y.S.2d 893.