the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). The defendant moved to compel arbitrationof the plaintiff’s claims pursuant to an agreement she signed agreeing to submit allemployment-related disputes to arbitration. The agreement also contained a classaction waiver, which provided that the parties "agree to waive all rights to bring, or be aparty to, any class or collective claims against one another and agree to pursue claimson an individual basis only." Id. at *5. The defendant asserted that the plaintiff’s claimswere covered in scope by the enforceable agreement, and therefore the district courtshould compel arbitration of the claims on an individual basis and dismiss all class andrepresentative claims. The defendant further contended that the class action waiver wasenforceable and that under the United States Supreme Court's recent decision in VikingRiver, Inc. v. Moriana, 142 S.Ct. 1906 (2022), Plaintiff's individual PAGA claims must bearbitrated while her representative claims must be dismissed. Id. at *9. The plaintiff firstargued that the agreement was void and therefore unenforceable because it wasunconscionable. The district court rejected the argument, finding that the agreementwas not substantively unconscionable. Next, the district court found that since VikingRiver, at least one California court has found that the Supreme Court's standinganalysis was dicta but declined to reach whether its reading of California law wascorrect, two judges have compelled arbitration of individual PAGA claims while stayingthe non-representative claims, and several in other districts in California have compelledarbitration of individual PAGA claims and dismissed the representative PAGA claims,finding Viking River to be binding on the question of PAGA standing. Id. at *22. Thedistrict court found that a stay of the non-individual claim would be appropriate becausethe Supreme Court in Viking River also found that the issue of statutory standing underPAGA is subject to clarification under state law. Id. at *24. The district court noted thatsince the California Supreme Court has taken up the issue of statutory standing in thepending case Adolph, et al. v. Uber Technologies, Inc., 2022 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS2170 (Cal. Ct. App., Apr. 11, 2022), a stay of the representative PAGA claims pendingfurther legal developments was warranted. Accordingly, the district court granted thedefendant’s motion in part and compelled arbitration of all of Plaintiff's claims except hernon-individual PAGA claim. The district court stayed the representative PAGA claimpending the resolution of Adolph by the California Supreme Court. Id. at *24-25.In Hernandez, et al. v. Delta Star Inc., 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17745 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 2,2023), the plaintiff filed a state court class action under the Private Attorneys GeneralAct of 2004 (PAGA) under California law. The defendant removed the action to theDistrict Court alleging that the state-law cause of action was truly a federal cause ofaction because of complete preemption. The defendant asserted that completepreemption existed because adjudication of the dispute would involve interpreting acollective bargaining agreement between the defendant and parties the plaintiff soughtto represent. The plaintiff filed a motion to remand, alleging that the dispute would notrequire interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement and therefore there was notcomplete preemption. The district court granted the plaintiff’s motion to remand. Thedistrict court determined that although the plaintiff sought to represent other employeessubject to a collective bargaining agreement, the defendant failed to produce evidencethat there was any active dispute over the meaning of the contract terms and thereforethere was no need to interpret the agreement. The district court also ruled the claims did25© Duane Morris LLP 2023PAGA Litigation Review – 2023
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