Arbitration

Lacy, an employee, filed a complaint with the state Department of Labor claiming her employer, Crestwood, had retaliated against her in violation of Lab. Code 98.7 for complaining about having been assaulted at work.  The DLSE commenced an investigation of the complaint.  Meanwhile, Crestwood filed a petition to compel arbitration under the arbitration clause in Lacy's employment contract.  The trial… Read More

Agreeing with decisions from many other districts, this decision holds that an employer cannot compel arbitration of its worker's PAGA claim, as the claim is by the state, not by the worker who signed the arbitration agreement.  Iskanian v. CLS Transportation (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348 remains good law and was not undermined by Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis (2018) 138… Read More

In a FEHA suit, a prevailing defendant may not recover its fees and costs unless the court finds the action was frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless when brought, or the plaintiff continued to litigate after it clearly became so.” (Gov. Code, § 12965(b).)  The employer may compel arbitration of FEHA claims, but only if the arbitrator may award any remedy a… Read More

This decision dismisses defendant's appeals from several trial court orders under the appellate disentitlement doctrine.  Defendant had refused to obey a long string of court orders in this long running dispute over a construction contract for defendant's casino.  Defendant refused to obey an order compelling arbitration.  Then it got an injunction against arbitration from its own newly formed tribal court,… Read More

Caballero was bound by the arbitration agreement he signed and initially with Premier Care upon admitting his mother to Premier Care's elder care facility.  Caballero cannot escape the agreement even though he claims not to understand, speak or read English, and the arbitration agreement was presented to him only in English.  If a party does not speak or understand English… Read More

Agreeing with Moritz v. Universal City Studios LLC (2020) 54 Cal.App.5th 238, this decision holds that even when a contract's arbitration clause clearly and expressly delegates arbitrability questions to the arbitrator, the court must decide whether the plaintiff's claim is made under a different contract that lacks an arbitration clause.  Here, the bank sued to enforce a loan agreement in… Read More

This decision affirms dismissal of plaintiff's complaint on judicial estoppel grounds.  In prior litigation over the same award of rights to assign .africa URLs, plaintiff took the position before an international arbitration panel that plaintiff could not sue in court over the award.  That position was completely inconsistent with its current assertion of the right to sue in court over… Read More

Following O'Connor v. Uber Technologies, Inc. (9th Cir. 2018) 904 F.3d 1087, this decision affirms the district court's denial of class certification in a wage and hour case.  Plaintiff and one other worker did not, but all the other putative class members did, sign an arbitration agreement with defendant containing a class action waiver.  As a result, plaintiff was not… Read More

Following Rent-A-Center West Inc. v. Jackson (2010) 130 S.Ct. 2772 and Brennan v. Opus Bank (9th Cir. 2015) 796 F.3d 1125, this decision holds that when an arbitration agreement delegates issues of arbitrability to the arbitrator, a court's first task is to determine whether the delegation clause itself (rather than the entire arbitration agreement) is enforceable.  If the delegation clause… Read More

AB 51 (Stats. 2019 ch. 711) enacted Lab. Code 432.6 which prohibits employers from requiring employees to agree to arbitration as a condition of employment, and states that it is a condition of employment if the employer requires the employee to opt out or take any affirmative step to avoid agreeing to arbitration.  Over a strong dissent, the majority opinion… Read More