New CA Arbitration Case

 

 

 

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To get my free summaries of the 22 new civil cases published by the California Supreme Court in 2021, click here.

Below is a discussion of a new CA civil case published last month.

Arbitration

In California cases with arbitration agreements, a common issue is whether California law will be preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). Last month, the Second District Court of Appeal published a new case addressing whether the FAA applied to an arbitration agreement regarding employees who provided paratransit services required by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq.). A video discussing the case is above and my summary of the case is below.

New Arbitration Decision  

Evenskaas v. California Transit, Inc. (2022) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2022 WL 2763374: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court's order denying defendant's motion to compel arbitration of plaintiff's wage and hour class action. The trial court denied the motion on the grounds that California law, rather than the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA; 9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.), applied to the arbitration agreement because the agreement did not involve interstate commerce, and under the California Supreme Court's decision in Gentry v. Superior Court (2007) 42 Cal.4th 443 (Gentry) plaintiff's waiver of his right to bring class action claims was unenforceable. The Court of Appeal disagreed. Because defendant California Transit was hired to provide paratransit services (required to be provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq.), and plaintiff was hired to provide those services, the arbitration agreement involved interstate commerce for purposes of the FAA, the FAA applied to the arbitration agreement, and the FAA preempted the Gentry rule that certain class action waivers in employment arbitration agreements are unenforceable. (C.A. 2nd, July 15, 2022.)