Arbitration

Plaintiff's claims against defendant for common law privacy violations through use of zombie "cookies" through which defendant gathered data on plaintiff's internet usage on his Verizon phone without Verizon’s knowledge or approval, let alone plaintiff's, were not subject to the arbitration clause in plaintiff’s phone contract with Verizon.   Read More

A collective bargaining agreement explicitly requires arbitration of wage and hour claims by referencing a wage order; so long as a Private Attorney General Act claim survives, decertification of a class is not immediately appealable. Read More

Employer’s motion to compel arbitration should be granted because even though arbitration agreement suffered a high degree of procedural unconscionability, there was no substantive unconscionability.   Read More

Defendant employer waived its right to compel arbitration by first filing and then withdrawing a motion to compel arbitration before class certification, and then litigating the case for four years before filing a new motion to compel arbitration after the class was certified. Read More

Arbitration agreement that provided for full judicial review of the arbitration award—the same as if it had been a decision by a court—sufficiently specified that parties wanted enhanced judicial review, so they were entitled to receive review by normal appellate standards, not the restricted review normally given arbitration awards.   Read More

The courts lack the power to confirm or review an interim arbitration award that does not resolve all disputed issues submitted to the arbitrator for decision.   Read More

The fact that plaintiff-patient died within the 30-day period during which she could rescind an agreement to arbitrate medical malpractice claims against a medical service provider (here, a 24-hour skilled nursing facility) does not invalidate the arbitration agreement.  Read More

Claims for statutory damages or penalties payable to individual employees are arbitrable; only Private Attorney General Act claims for civil penalties payable to the state are not arbitrable.   Read More

An arbitration agreement is not substantively unconscionable merely because it states that the arbitrator will decide arbitrability issues.   Read More

Unless the arbitration clause expressly adopts them, the Federal Arbitration Act’s procedural rules do not apply in state court proceedings to compel arbitration, even when the FAA’s substantive provisions govern the arbitration clause.   Read More

By choosing arbitration under the International Chamber of Commerce rules, the parties clearly delegated to the arbitrator questions regarding the scope of the arbitration clause including whether it allowed impleader of a claim against a surety that was not a party to the arbitration clause.  Read More

District court erred in dismissing plaintiff’s employment discrimination suit even though it had become moot, since plaintiff could still receive nominal damages and have his dignity interest vindicated even though he no longer worked for employer.  Read More

Committing a senile elderly person to a residential care facility is a "health care" decision, so only a person holding a health care power of attorney may make that decision for the elder; as a result, a facility’s arbitration agreement signed by an agent with only a regular power of attorney was not binding.  Read More

Entry of an arbitration award does not deprive the arbitrator of jurisdiction to enter a later supplemental award of costs under CCP 998, nor does CCP 1281.4’s general rule that each party bear a pro rata share of arbitration costs bar such an award.  Read More

The Federal Arbitration Act preempts Kentucky's rule invalidating an arbitration clause entered into by an attorney-in-fact unless the power of attorney specifically authorizes the attorney-in-fact to enter into an arbitration agreement.  Read More

Arbitration clause in employee’s contract with staffing agency could be enforced by the employer to whom the staffing agency assigned him, because plaintiff’s claims arose out of his employment contract and were intimately intertwined with it, thus estopping him from asserting the employer was not a party to the agreement.  Read More

A waiver of the right to seek injunctive relief in court to prevent violations of California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act, Unfair Competition Law, or False Advertising Law is unenforceable under California law, and the Federal Arbitration Act does not preempt California law in that respect.  Read More

An arbitration clause that states each party gives up the right to discovery and appeal does not waive the right to a judicial review of the arbitration award on the limited grounds available under the Federal Arbitration Act or the California Arbitration Act, nor does it waive the right to appeal from a judgment confirming or vacating the arbitration award.  Read More

An arbitration clause in a high executive’s employment contract was enforceable after severance of its single unconscionable provision exempting from arbitration any claim for breach by the employee of the employer’s confidentiality agreement.  Read More

A trial court may not vacate an arbitration award for the arbitrator’s failure to disclose a possible ground for disqualification unless it is shown that the arbitrator actually knew (not merely should have known) of the undisclosed ground for disqualification.  Read More