RIVERSIDE, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – An employer can’t defeat one of California’s Private Attorney General Act lawsuits by relying on an arbitration agreement its former employee signed.
The California Fourth Appellate District ruled that way July 20, subjecting The Icee Company and J&J Snack Foods to a lawsuit from former employee Tauran Collie, who will now use his PAGA powers to pursue wage claims on behalf of all Icee employees.
Both the trial court and the appeals court ruled for Collie.
“Collie signed the arbitration agreement when he began his employment with Icee and before his PAGA claim arose,” Justice Frank Menetrez wrote.
“He executed the agreement in his individual capacity. The state had not deputized him to act at the time, and he therefore could not agree to arbitrate on behalf of the state.
“It does not matter that Icee wants to compel arbitration of Collie’s cause of action on ‘an individual basis,’ as opposed to as a representative of other aggrieved employees. Either way, Collie is suing ‘as a proxy for the state [and] only with the state’s acquiescence.’”