Today’s Supreme Court conference was the third in a row with no straight grants. But there were some actions of note, including:
No arbitrations. The court denied review of two Court of Appeal opinions that affirmed denials of motions to compel arbitration.
In In re Uber Technologies Wage and Hour Cases, the First District, Division Four, Court of Appeal held in a published opinion that the defendants couldn’t force arbitration of civil claims by the People of the State of California and by the state’s Labor Commissioner “because the People and the Labor Commissioner are not parties to the arbitration agreements [the defendants] invoked.” The claims were that the defendants had misclassified rideshare and delivery drivers as independent contractors rather than employees. Justice Kelli Evans was recused.
In Kermani v. Hyundai Motor America, the Second District, Division Four, unpublished opinion concluded a putative class action against an auto maker alleging vehicle defects shouldn’t go to arbitration because the arbitration provision was in contracts between only the buyers and the car dealers who sold the car, not the auto maker. The Supreme Court denial came despite the court having previously granted review to decide the same issue in Ford Motor Warranty Cases (see here) and already having several Ford Motor Warranty grant-and-holds (see here, here, here, and here). Horvitz & Levy filed the petition for review.
Criminal case grant-and-holds. There were six criminal case grant-and-holds: one more waiting for a decision in People v. Lynch (see here); one more holding for People v. Mitchell (see here); one more on hold for People v. Hardin (see here and here), which was argued last month; one more waiting for People v. Walker (see here); and two more waiting for People v. Emanuel (see here).