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In Santana, the plaintiff signed three arbitration-related agreements during his employment onboarding with Studebaker. After his termination, Santana filed a wage and hour class action asserting various Labor Code claims, including a PAGA claim. Studebaker moved to compel arbitration of Santana’s individual claims, including his individual PAGA claim, which the trial court denied. The Second District, Division Seven, rejected the trial court’s conclusion that purported conflicts among the arbitration provisions defeated mutual assent and that a wholesale PAGA waiver rendered the agreement unconscionable.
The Court of Appeal held that any inconsistencies across the onboarding documents “at most, created an ambiguity regarding some aspect of the agreement to arbitrate,” not uncertainty negating the parties’ clear intent to arbitrate employment related disputes under the FAA, including Santana’s individual Labor Code and PAGA claims. Although one provision contained a wholesale PAGA waiver, the court held that it conflicted with multiple provisions preserving non-individual PAGA claims and could be severed under Viking River. The court therefore concluded that the agreement remained enforceable and directed the trial court to grant the motion to compel arbitration.
The decision serves as a reminder that arbitration agreements are to be construed in favor of arbitration and inconsistencies in agreements do not invalidate an arbitration agreement including an agreement to arbitrate individual PAGA claims.
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