Arbitration

This decision holds that the US Supreme Court's later decision in Granite Rock Co. v. Int’l Bhd. Of Teamsters (2010) 561 U.S. 287, which expressly rejected the notion that labor arbitration disputes should be analyzed differently than commercial arbitration disputes undermined the reasoning of both Pacesetter Construction Co. v. Carpenters 46 Northern California Counties Conference Bd. (9th Cir. 1997) 116… Read More

A class action waiver is conceptually distinct from an arbitration agreement, though the two are often found together.  FINRA Rule 13204 forbids class action FINRA arbitrations.  Subsection (a)(4) also forbids an employer from enforcing an arbitration agreement against an employee who is a member of a certified class in a court action, at least with respect to the claims asserted… Read More

Applying Arizona law, this decision holds:  (1) An ordinary fiduciary owes no duty to warn the beneficiary about an arbitration clause in the contract between them.  (2) An arbitration clause is presumed to continue to govern litigation arising from a contract even after the contract's other provisions have terminated--unless the agreement expressly or by clear implication provides otherwise.  Merely including… Read More

Moritz produced a series of Fast and Furious films for Universal.  In connection with those films, Moritz entered into contracts with Universal which contained arbitration clauses requiring arbitration of disputes arising out of or related to those agreements.  Some of the early films' arbitration clauses delegated arbitrability issues to the arbitrator by choosing JAMS rules.  But later ones did not. … Read More

The district court made a clear error as a matter of law in holding that an Uber driver was not a worker engaged in interstate commerce and thus exempt from the FAA.  Though interstate transportion of people as well as goods may constitute interstate commerce for FAA purposes, the focus under the FAA is on the employer's business and whether… Read More

A party normally has 100 days from service of an arbitration award in which to file a petition or motion seeking to vacate the award.  However, if the other party files and serves a petition to confirm the award less than 90 days after service of the award, the time to respond and file any cross petition or motion to… Read More

When a party to an arbitration becomes aware of facts showing the arbitrator is biased, the party must give notice of the arbitrator's disqualification before a hearing of any contested issue of fact relating to the merits of the claim or after any ruling by the arbitrator regarding any contested matter.  CC\P 1281.91(c).  Here, the arbitrator revealed that the father… Read More

In this unlawful detainer action, with a breach of warranty of habitability cross-complaint, the trial court threatened to send the matter to judicial arbitration, after which the parties agreed to arbitration.  Though the parties' agreement wasn't crystal clear on the point, this decision holds that they had agreed to contractual arbitration governed by CCP 1280 et seq., ending in a… Read More

Following Jaramillo v. JH Real Estate Partners Inc. (2003) 111 Cal.App.4th 394 and Harris v. University Village Thousand Oaks, CCRC, LLC. (2020) 49 Cal.App.5th 847, this decision holds that Civ. Code 1953(a)(4) renders unenforceable any arbitration clause in a residential lease--at least so long as the FAA does not apply to the lease. Read More

Joining the 1st Circuit, this decision holds that a worker can be "engaged in interstate commerce" and thus exempt from the FAA even though the worker, himself, does not cross state lines--so long as he is part of a distribution chain that extends across state lines.  Thus, Amazon's "last-mile" delivery drivers were exempt from the FAA.  Though they didn't cross… Read More