Court Of Appeal Rejects Waiver, Estoppel And Forfeiture Arguments Made By Lessor Who Failed To Timely Exercise Right To “Baseball Arbitration” In Rental Dispute. Miss Myrtle Rowe holding a baseball bat. March 14, 2010. Library of Congress. “Baseball arbitration” takes its name from salary arbitration in Major League Baseball, in which the […]
Third-Party Non-Signatory Owed Duties Under Labor Code To Plaintiff, Independent Of Plaintiff’s Contract. Zepeda v. Paramount Citrus Packing Company LLC, F071593 (5th Dist. 7/14/16) (Pena, Levy, Smith) (unpublished) distinguishes two situations: (1) a plaintiff whose relationship with a third-party non-signatory merely presumes the existence of a contract; and (2) a plaintiff whose rights […]
Notwithstanding the trend in SCOTUS to uphold arbitration agreements, including waiver of class arbitration, our next two unpublished cases show that the California courts look closely at arbitration agreements, sometimes enforcing and sometimes not enforcing arbitration agreements. On the same day, one California Court of Appeal reversed an order denying an employer’s effort to […]
Presiding Justice Turner Respectfully Dissents. The Fifth Circuit, Division Two, holds that because a law firm’s cause of action to compel arbitration with its client “admitted the existence of a binding agreement to arbitrate the fee dispute, the trial court’s jurisdiction over the merits of plaintiff’s claims was initially limited to a determination of […]
Plaintiffs’ Pleading Allegations Didn’t Help Their Argument. The somewhat anomalous circumstances in this case allowed a nonsignatory defendant to arbitrate its claims with a nonsignatory plaintiff. O’Donnell Strategic Industrial REIT v. Super. Ct., G049498 (4/3 Jan. 28, 2015) (Thompson, Bedsworth, Moore) (unpublished). In a dispute concerning the setting up and operation of […]
In Which The Trial Court Sums It Up Neatly For The Court Of Appeal. In Chan v. Delta Dental of California, A138402 (1st Dist. Div. 2 July 10, 2014) (Kline, Richman, Brick) (unpublished), a dental service provider sought to enforce an unsigned arbitration agreement based on an arbitration agreement that a dentist had not […]
Court Would Not Compel Arbitration Here Where The Beneficiary Had Not Sought The Benefits Of The Trust Instrument, But Rather Challenged Its Validity Pamela McArthur v. Kristi McArthur, A137133 (1st Dist. Div. 5 March 11, 2014) (Bruiniers, Jones, Needham) is a case arising out of an inharmonious “sister act.” The scenario is not […]
Many “Imaginative Arguments” Rejected To Get To Simple Conclusion I’ve had the unpleasant experience of purchasing electronic equipment, only to discover later that the seller had booked the sale as a lease. Therefore, our next case, Murphy v. DirectTV, Inc., No. 11-57163 (9th Cir. July 30, 2013) (Wardlaw, J. author 3:0) (published) struck a […]
Defendant Admitted It Did Not Enter Into Contract With Student To Provide Him With Debt Relief Services Student loan debt is an area of our economy ripe to generate cases on arbitration and class action. See for example my April 12, 2013 post about Kilgore v. Keybank, No. 09-16703 (9th Cir. April 11, 2013), […]
District Court Could Decide Whether Nonsignatory Could Compel Arbitration Toyota has been enmeshed in arbitration concerning the ABS braking system of its 2010 Prius. In Kramer v. Toyota Motor Corporation, et al., Case No. 12-55050 (9th Cir. January 1, 2013) (Quist, D. J., author 3-0) (published), owners of 2010 Priuses, parties to arbitration agreements […]