Arbitration

A botched Spanish translation felled an employer’s arbitration clause, creating a fatal ambiguity as to the severability of an impermissible waiver of the right to bring a Private Attorney General Act claim. Read More

The integration clause in a residential care facility’s contract did not supersede an arbitration agreement that the resident later signed; on remand, the trial court must consider plaintiffs’ other defenses to arbitration. Read More

By submitting arguments on the merits to the arbitrator without objecting to his jurisdiction until long after the fact, employer waived the argument that arbitrator lacked authority under the collective bargaining agreement to decide labor union’s claim for bonus pay to new hires. Read More

Though Uber’s arbitration clause contained a delegation clause, its motion to compel arbitration was wholly groundless and thus properly denied since the plaintiff’s claim arose from his work as a Lyft driver, not as an Uber driver. Read More

Unless the plaintiff follows steps prescribed in Code of Civil Procedure 1281.5, it's filing of a mechanics lien foreclosure suit waives its right to compel arbitration in that suit or any other action. Read More

Employers may require their employees to sign class action waivers in arbitration agreements as a condition of employment. Read More

A court always decides whether a non-signatory is bound by an arbitration agreement—even when the agreement delegates arbitrability issues to the arbitrator. Read More

An arbitration clause, including its delegation provision, was unenforceable because it had been added to a workers compensation insurance policy by means of an endorsement that had not been filed with and approved by the Insurance Commissioner as required by law. Read More

A party who has participated in good faith in arbitration but can no longer pay the arbitrator’s fees can apply to the court to have the dispute transferred to court unless the opposing party agrees to pay all remaining arbitration costs. Read More

An arbitration award was vacated as having been obtained by undue means when the arbitrators relied on a brief not served on the opposing party. Read More

Two final judgments confirming separate final arbitration awards do not run afoul of the “one final judgment rule,” which is intended to determine the merits of all claims between two parties in a single judgment even when, as here, one award disposes of the merits and the other disposes of fees and costs. Read More

Defendant was entitled to invoke an arbitration clause in defending against plaintiff’s Bane and Ralph Acts claims since the portions of those Acts which seek to discourage arbitration are preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act. Read More

An elder abuse complaint alleging neglect is not a dispute relating to a health care provider’s “professional negligence” within the meaning of Code of Civil Procedure section 1295, so the decedent’s heirs were not bound by the provider’s arbitration agreement. Read More

When an arbitration agreement is not covered by the FAA, Courts evaluate whether the agreement’s class waiver provision is unenforceable under the four-part Gentry v. Superior Court (2007) 42 Cal.4th 443 test. Read More

Party-selected appraisers are “arbitrators” within the meaning of Evidence Code section 703.5, which renders their testimony inadmissible for most purposes. Read More

By participating in arbitration for 10 months without objection, plaintiff waived right to have the court decide whether the dispute was arbitrable, and the plaintiff lost any right to have the award vacated by failing to raise that issue by petition or response within 100 days of service of the award. Read More

An employer’s arbitration clause was denied enforcement as procedurally and substantively unconscionable because it was presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis and unduly limited both formal and informal discovery. Read More

Under the Labor Management Relations Act, a worker’s claim must be arbitrated if its resolution requires interpretation of the governing collective bargaining agreement; as here, where the worker’s waiting time penalty claim depended on whether his employment as a security guard was episodic or continuous. Read More

Filing suit and opposing a motion to compel arbitration are not, in themselves, breaches of the parties’ arbitration agreement sufficient to allow an award of fees under the agreement’s attorney fee clause. Read More

False Claims Act lawsuit was not subject to defendant employer’s arbitration clause in its contract with employee claimant, since it had no substantial connection to the employment relationship, and it was a claim by the United States, not the employee, against the employer.   Read More