This decision holds that Lab. Code 925 is enforceable in federal court. A California employee who was not represented by counsel when he signed an employment agreement may void clauses in the contract that choose another state as the forum or another state's law as applicable law. Having done so, the employee may enforce the contract in federal court, cleansed… Read More
The trial court properly denied a residential care facility's motion to compel arbitration. The facility's arbitration agreement was signed by the admitted resident's son, not the resident. The resident was not mentally incompetent at the time of admission, and he had not designated his son his attorney in fact, or agent. The resident didn't ratify the arbitration agreement by not… Read More
Lab Code 925 prohibits employment contracts from containing provisions requiring an employee to litigate or arbitrate a claim in another state if the claim arises in California or depriving the employee of the substantive protection of California law in a suit arising in California. A provision that violates the section is voidable by the employee, after which the matter shall… Read More
An employee did not agree to the employer's arbitration policy that was stated only in an employee handbook which the employee acknowledged receiving but did not sign anything agreeing to the employer's policies, particularly as the acknowledgement of receipt of the handbook didn't reference arbitration and the handbook itself said it was not an agreement. The fact that the handbook… Read More
By failing to raise, in its opening memo on the motion to compel arbitration, the fact that the arbitration agreement contained a delegation clause that provided for the arbitrator to decide arbitrability issues, the defendant waived its right to rely on the delegation clause, and the court properly decided the arbitrability issues. Waiting to raise delegation until the reply memo… Read More
Following Ahlstrom v. DHI Mortgage, Inc. (9th Cir. 2021) 21 F.4th 631, this decision holds that the court must always decide whether the party opposing arbitration entered into the agreement containing the arbitration clause. That issue cannot be delegated to the arbitrator because the delegation clause itself is invalid if the opposing party didn't enter into the agreement containing it. Read More
A hospital cannot recover more for its emergency care of patients injured in car accidents than the amounts it has agreed with the patients' medical insurers to charge for those services. Here, the hospital tried to collect more by requiring the patients to sign conditions of admissions that contained assignments of the patients' underinsured motorist coverage and medical benefits coverage… Read More
The parties' arbitration provision said that "except for claims seeking injunctive or other equitable relief," the parties agreed to arbitrate any dispute between them. Plaintiff filed suit including among others claims for specific performance, rescission, and violation of the UCL. This decision holds that all of those claims are equitable or seek equitable relief and thus are not arbitrable under… Read More
On an earlier appeal, the court held that the indemnity provision that the plaintiff required the defendant to sign in order to apply for approval of its development project was not supported by consideration and that plaintiff had no statutory authority to impose an indemnity agreement as a condition of plaintiff's statutory duty to consider defendant's application. On this appeal,… Read More
Plaintiff purchased a commercial condominium as an investment from defendants under a purchase agreement and at the same time entered into a management agreement under which one of the defendant companies would manage the condominium. Only the management agreement contained an arbitration clause, and it was narrow, not broad, applying only to disputes arising in connection with the interpretation and… Read More
The trial court properly held that Owen's agreement not to solicit former customers was enforceable under B&P Code 16601 since Owen had sold all of his interests in several affiliated businesses to Blue Mountain as the first step in forming a joint venture with a Chinese company. Even though Owen regained a 50% ultimate beneficial interest in Blue Mountain once… Read More
A well-established departure from the hearsay rule applies when the very fact in controversy is whether certain things were said, and not whether these things were true or false. Hence, in a breach of contract case, the contract is not hearsay. The contract must be authenticated, but here the plaintiff did so by showing that it had received an assignment… Read More
A landlord cannot avoid a lessee's right of first refusal as provided in the lease by selling a larger parcel of which the leased premises is a smaller part. In that situation, the third party buyer's offered price must be equitably apportioned to the leased premises in the proportion its square footage or appraised value bears to the square footage… Read More
Owners of adjoining apartments mediated Doe's civil harassment prevention action, reaching an agreement that provided, among other things, that the parties agree not to disparage one another. This decision holds that read in light of the limited nature of the action and surrounding circumstances, the provision could not reasonably be read to ban Doe from saying negative things about Olson… Read More
BMW, the manufacturer, could not compel arbitration of the car buyer's breach of express warranty, Magnuson-Moss Act and Song-Beverly Act violations based on the arbitration clause in the retail installment sale contract that the plaintiff signed to buy the car. BMW was not a third party beneficiary of the arbitration agreement because while the agreement covered claims against non-signatory third… Read More
There are four styles of assenting to agreements on Internet sites: (1) browsewrap, where mere use of the site is taken as consent to the site's terms and conditions, (2) signwrap, where the user's entry into a transaction on the site is taken as consent to its terms and conditions, (3) clickwrap, where the user must click a statement that… Read More
Fraud in factum, in execution or in the inception differs from promissory fraud, which is a false promise. Fraud in execution occurs when the defendant causes the plaintiff to execute a contract that has materially different terms from those on which the parties orally agreed. To allege a claim for fraud in execution, the plaintiff must allege facts showing the… Read More
Civil Code 1799.1 requires a creditor to provide any co-signer of a consumer credit contract with a specified warning about the risks of guaranteeing someone else's debt. And Civil Code 1799.5 provides that the creditor may not enforce the contract and any accompanying security interest against the co-signer if the statutory warning isn't given. This decision holds that these provisions… Read More
Plaintiff had no arbitration agreement with Essential Seasons, by which she was employed in 2017. During that year Expert Staffing provided payroll services to Essential Seasons. In 2019, Expert Staffing hired plaintiff, and she signed its arbitration agreement which provided for arbitration of all claims against Expert Staffing and all related entities including entities where employees are sent to work. … Read More
Even when an arbitration agreement delegates arbitrability issues to the arbitrator, the court must decide whether an agreement to arbitrate was formed. Formation issues may not be delegated to the arbitrator. Here, no agreement to arbitrate was formed because the agreement purported to be between plaintiff and the corporate parent of plaintiff's employer, yet the arbitration agreement never referred to… Read More
