The district court erred in holding that the delegation clause in the arbitration agreement in this case was unconscionable and therefore unenforceable. The district court so ruled because the arbitration agreement also provided that if, for any reason, the dispute was not arbitrated, the parties waived a jury trial. Such a pre-dispute waiver of jury trial is unenforceable under California… Read More
Applying Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc. (2020) 9 Cal. 5th 1130 to an at-will employment contract, this decision holds that to assert a tort claim for inducing breach of the contract, the plaintiff must allege independently wrongful conduct. Here, plaintiff could not do so. He lacked antitrust standing to rely on the antitrust violation that he had alleged as… Read More
Although recognizing that a minority of decisions apply a substantial evidence standard of review on appeal from an order granting or enforcement to a forum selection clause, this decision adopts what it says is the majority rule applying, instead, an abuse of discretion standard of review. In this case, the contract included not only a clause selecting Illinois as the… Read More
The Song-Beverly Act (Civ. Code 1790.1) renders any waiver of its provisions contrary to public policy, unenforceable and void. This decision holds that while the antiwaiver provision does not bar all settlement agreements resolving Song-Beverly Act claims, it did invalidate the waiver of Song-Beverly Act rights in the pre-litigation settlement agreement in this case because there was no evidence that… Read More
Disagreeing with Felisilda v. FCA US LLC (2020) 53 Cal.App.5th 486, this decision holds that a standard California car sale contract with an arbitration clause does not require the car buyer to arbitrate his warranty claims against the car's manufacturer. Breach of warranty claims are based on statute, not the car sale contract, and so are not intertwined with the… Read More
Defendant disability insurer wrote plaintiff insured in 2015 that it had determined his disability arose from illness rather than accident and so would stop paying benefits in 2018 when he turned 65 as the policy allowed for illness-caused disability. Plaintiff sued for breach of contract and breach of implied covenant in 2019, more than four years after the 2015 letter,… Read More
Under McGill v. Citibank, N.A. (2017) 2 Cal.5th 945, the trial court properly denied defendant's motion to compel arbitration because the arbitration clause forbade award of a public injunction in any forum. Contrary to the defendant's argument, its arbitration agreement did not authorize the arbitrator to award a public injunction. It provided instead that arbitration is to be “conducted only… Read More
Kinder was a patient at defendant's residential skilled nursing facility. The trial court correctly denied a motion to compel arbitration of Kinder's personal injury claim because she did not sign the facility's arbitration agreement. Instead, her adult child signed for her. The facility produced no evidence to show that the signer had actual or ostensible authority to sign for Kinder. … Read More
Kaiser's arbitration clause satisfied H&S Code 1363.1's requirement that a health plan's arbitration clause be prominently displayed immediately before the patient's signature. The enrollment was by computer. The arbitration clause appeared just before a button marked "save" and a warning that by hitting that button, the patient would be agreeing to Kaiser's terms and conditions and enrolling in the health… Read More
The trial court did not err in denying a motion to compel arbitration in this case on the ground of unconscionability. The employee was required as a condition of employment to sign the arbitration agreement and a separate confidentiality agreement. The two had to be construed together since they both dealt with resolution of disputes arising out of plaintiff's employment… Read More
Though LA's city council adopted a resolution approving deeding a parcel of city-owned real property to plaintiff, the resolution was not a contract and did not bind the city to convey the property. Instead, the city would be bound only if its charter provisions and administrative code provisions governing city contracts were properly followed. Since discretion was involved in the… Read More
The force majeure clause in the parties' lease allowed a party to defer performance if a force majeure delayed, interrupted or prevented performance of obligations under the lease. This decision holds that though COVID-19 and related governmental restrictions on use of the premises for its intended purpose as a brewpub, the pandemic did not delay, interrupt or prevent the tenant… Read More
Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela (2019) 139 S.Ct. 1407 only held that ambiguity could not be construed against drafter for purposes of determining whether the parties had agreed to classwide arbitration. It did not hold that the construction against drafter principle is inapplicable to other types of ambiguities in the arbitration agreement. In any event, there was no ambiguity in… Read More
Disagreeing with Davis v. TWC Dealer Group, Inc. (2019) 41 Cal.App.5th 662, this decision holding that the arbitration provision in Nissan dealerships' standard employment agreement is not unconscionable. Though having a high degree of procedural unconscionability due to small print size and lengthy, obscure language, the clause is not substantively unconscionable. Small print size and obtuse phrasing relate to procedural… Read More
This decision holds that a restaurant established that its business losses incurred due to government closure orders during the COVID-19 pandemic were within the basic coverage of its business interruption coverage but also fell within the virus exclusion and the exclusion for loss caused directly or indirectly by enforcement of an ordinance or law. Hence, judgment for the insurer is… Read More
Disagreeing with Felisilda v. FCA US LLC (2020) 53 Cal.App.5th 486, this decision holds that a standard California car sale contract with an arbitration clause does not require the car buyer to arbitrate his warranty claims against the car's manufacturer. A warranty claim is not based on the car sale contract, but instead is an obligation of the manufacturer that… Read More
Substantial evidence supported the trial court's decision finding that the defendant care facility's arbitration agreement was unenforceable against a patient's heirs because the patient, who had suffered a stroke days before signing the agreement, lacked the mental capacity to contract when he signed the form. Read More
Following Ajamian v. CantorCO2e, LP (2012) 203 Cal.App.4th 771, this decision holds that an arbitration clause that merely calls for arbitration of all disputes arising under the agreement but does not specifically mention disputes about arbitrability issues fails to meet the "clear and unmistakable" standard for delegation of arbitrability questions to the arbitrator. It also follows Ajamian in folding that… Read More
The district court properly enforced defendant’s arbitration clause. The online terms of use adequately identified defendant as a party to the agreement by referring to its dba. The terms of use were presented on the website in a manner that was between click wrap and browse wrap but adequately informed the user of the terms' existence and availability for review… Read More
The trial court properly enforced an employer's arbitration clause. The clause was only minimally procedurally unconscionable, being presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis by the employer which wielded greater economic power. However, the clause was on a separate page. It was short and clearly titled. The page also warned the employee to read the clause closely. The clause was not substantively… Read More
