Arbitration

In Smith v. Americredit Financial Services, Inc., 2012 WL 834784 (S.D.Cal. 2012), Judge Sabraw post-Concepcion followed Sanchez in denying enforcement of an arbitration clause in an NOI class action. With respect to the first clause, the Sanchez court found it was one-sided in favor of the seller because the buyer, not the dealer, is more likely to recover an award… Read More

In Cox v. Community Loans of America, Inc., 2012 WL 773496 (M.D.Ga. 2012), the District Court held that automobile title pawn transactions were “loans” subject to the Military Lending Act, which itself prohibits arbitration enforcement. Accordingly, the petition to enforce arbitration in a class action alleging that the loan transactions were void at inception was denied because the MLA prohibits… Read More

In In re Jiffy Lube Intern., Inc., Text Spam Litigation, --- F.Supp.2d ----, 2012 WL 762888 (S.D.Cal. 2012), Judge Miller found that Plaintiff stated a claim for violation of the TCPA, finding that Plaintiff had pleaded a vicarious liability claim against the entity who hired the company sending the text messages, that Plaintiff had pleaded an absence of consent, and… Read More

In Brewer v. Missouri Title Loans, --- S.W.3d ----, 2012 WL 716878 (Mo. 2012), the Missouri Supreme Court found that Concepcion permitted unconscionability analysis as to an automobile title lender's effort to enforce a class action waiver in an arbitration clause.  The Missouri Supreme Court held, in part, that the lender's clause's reservation of self-help remedies -- often the title lender's chief… Read More

In Kilgore v. KeyBank, Nat. Ass'n, --- F.3d ----, 2012 WL 718344 (9th Cir. 2012), the Court of Appeals found that California’s state law Broughton-Cruz exception to arbitration enforcement did not survive Concepcion. The facts were as follows: Plaintiffs are former students of a private helicopter vocational school located in Oakland, California, and operated by Silver State Helicopters, LLC (“SSH”).… Read More

In Hagy v. Demers & Adams, LLC,  2012 WL 359577 (S.D.Ohio 2012), Judge Kemp enforced an arbitration clause and referred FDCPA matters arising out of collection on a promissory note to arbitration.      The arbitration agreement here covers “[a]ll disputes, claims, or controversies arising from or relating to this contract or the relationships which result from this contract....” Each… Read More

In Medina v. Performance Automotive Group, Inc.,  2012 WL 219308 (E.D.Cal. 2012), Judge Karlton remanded to state court a class action alleging that a car dealer illegally ‘backdated’ retail installment contracts.  The defendant finance company had removed the matter to federal court, and then moved to compel arbitration (and the class action waiver) under Concepcion.   Judge Karlton found that neither… Read More

In Townsend v. National Arbitration Forum, Inc., 2012 WL 12736 (C.D.Cal. 2012), Judge Fairbank found that Plaintiffs failed to state a claim under the CLRA for conspiring to “rig” arbitration procedures by forcing consumers to agree to unfair arbitration clauses that disfavor consumers in connection with bank and credit card accounts.     Plaintiff's CLRA claim alleges that had Plaintiff… Read More

In Greenwood v. CompuCredit, Corp., here, Justice Scalia today authored an opinion overruling the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuits’ refusal to enforce an arbitration clause related to a claim under the Credit Repair Organizations Act.  The syllabus of the Court explained:    Although respondents’ credit card agreement required their claims tobe resolved by binding arbitration, they filed a… Read More

In Blau v. AT & T Mobility, 2012 WL 10546 (N.D.Cal. 2012), Judge Breyer found no unconscionability impediment to enforcing an arbitration clause with a class-action waiver in a class action case filed arising from consumer telephone contracts.   Plaintiffs filed a class action against Defendants relating to AT & T's alleged aggressive marketing of “their service to users of… Read More

A copy of the decision is here. Read More

On November 18, 2011, the California Court of Appeal for the Second District ordered re-hearing on the Sanchez matter, apparently denying the Dealer's Petition but granting re-hearing on his own motion.  The docket is set forth below. 11/08/2011 Rehearing petition filed.   by aplt Valencia Holding Co. 11/10/2011 Letter sent to counsel re:   The court requests that each party… Read More

In Roberts v. El Cajon Motors, Inc., --- Cal.Rptr.3d ----, 2011 WL 5343692 (2011), the California Court of Appeal found that an automobile dealer waived enforcement of an arbitration clause in the Law Printing RISC because it has substantially participated in the litigation as well as attempting outside the litigation to reach individual settlements directly with potential classmembers.  The Court… Read More

In Aho v. Americredit Financial Services, Inc., --- F.R.D. ----, 2011 WL 5401799 (S.D.Cal. 2011), Judge Sabraw certified an NOI class under the UCL and ASFA for allegedly faulty post-repossession letters ("NOIs") pursuant to FRCP 23(b)(2), but refused to do so under the Rosenthal Act.  Judge Sabraw found the ‘damages’ sought under the Rosenthal Act were not incidental to the… Read More

In Sanchez v. Valencia Holding Co., LLC, 2011 WL 5027488 (2011), the California Court of Appeal found that Concepcion did not eliminate states' rights to address issues of unconcionability in arbitration clauses and, therefore, found that the arbitration clause in a LawPrinting retail installment sales contract for the purchase of an automobile was procedurally and substantively unconscionable.  Sanchez involved a class… Read More

It's not an auto finance case, as it involves the CLRA and enforcement of an arbitration clause post-Concepcion, and both issues arise in automobile and personal property finance, I'm reporting on it for my readers.    In Khan v. Orkin Exterminating Co., Inc., 2011 WL 4853365 (N.D.Cal. 2011), Judge Armstrong held that Concepcion preempted required enforcement of an arbitration clause… Read More

In Meyer v. T-Mobile USA Inc., 2011 WL 4434810 (N.D.Cal. 2011), Judge Breyer followed Concepcion and enforced an arbitration provision in T-Mobile’s contract.  As to Concepcion, Judge Meyer enforced the arbitration clause and class-action waiver, explaining:   Plaintiff's argument is flawed both factually and legally. First, the arbitration agreement is not governed only by California law. See Baca Decl. (dkt.17)… Read More

In Baker v. Antwerpen Motorcars Ltd., 2011 WL 3740852 (D.Md. 2011), the plaintiff sued an automobile dealer for various state and federal claims based on the failure to disclose that cars sold to them had been used as short-term rentals.  Judge Quarles denied an automobile dealer’s petition to arbitrate where the Arbitration Agreement was not contained in the RISC, but… Read More

In Mims v. Global Credit and Collection Corp., --- F.Supp.2d ----, 2011 WL 3586056 (S.D.Fla. 2011), Judge Altonaga held that a debt collector could not avail itself of the Arbitration clause in a credit card agreement between the debtor and the original creditor.    This case arises from Global's attempt to collect a debt allegedly owed by Plaintiff under a… Read More

In Cruz v. Cingular Wireless, here, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit followed Concepcion in affirming a petition to arbitrate notwithstanding the existence of the class action waiver in the arbitration agreement.  Cruz involved the following facts.  The Plaintiff class had signed a cell phone contract, which contained an arbitration clause with a class action waiver.  Plaintiff filed a… Read More