Defendant Failed to Establish Existence of Arbitration Agreement
/
In recent news, a skilled nursing facility faced with a lawsuit filed by a former employee attempted to compel arbitration, but there was a question about the existence of the cited arbitration agreement.
The Case: Bannister v. Marinidence Opco, LLC
The Court: California Court of Appeals
The Case No.: A159815
The Plaintiff: Bannister v. Marinidence Opco, LLC
The Plaintiff in the case, Maureen Bannister, is a former employee at Marinidence Opco’s skilled nursing facility. Bannister filed a lawsuit against the Defendants alleging discrimination, retaliation, defamation, etc.
The Defendant: Bannister v. Marinidence Opco, LLC
In response to the complaint, Marinidence Opco, LLC, the defendant in the case, moved to compel arbitration, claiming that when they acquired the skilled nursing facility from the previous owner, Bannister electronically signed an arbitration agreement.
The Case: Bannister v. Marinidence Opco, LLC
The plaintiff in the case responded to the defendant’s claims that she signed an arbitration agreement at the time of the facility acquisition by presenting evidence that she never saw the arbitration agreement during the onboarding process or touched the computer that she was supposed to have used to provide her electronic signature on the agreement. Accepting the evidence the plaintiff presented as establishing that she never signed the cited arbitration agreement, the court denied the defendant’s motion and held that the defendant failed to meet their burden of establishing by a preponderance of evidence that a valid arbitration agreement exists. (The system in place had no employee-specific usernames or passwords to access the onboarding portal, and social security numbers were available in personnel files). The defendant appealed, but the California Court of Appeal affirmed, holding that there was substantial evidence indicating that the defendants failed to prove the plaintiff electronically signed an arbitration agreement. Without the use of unique usernames and passwords for each individual employee, it is difficult for employers to prove that a specific employee digitally signed an arbitration agreement.
If you need to discuss California state law or if you need to file a class action lawsuit, please get in touch with Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP. Experienced employment law attorneys are ready to assist you in various law firm offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Chicago.
