Nelson v. Golden Queen Mining Company CA5

FACTS

Appellant Golden Queen Mining Company, LLC (Queen Mining) is a California limited liability company that operates the Soledad Mountain gold and silver mine in Mojave, California. Queen Mining’s operations use equipment, explosives and chemicals obtained from sources outside California. All the gold and silver recovered from the

2. crushed ore is sold to a refinery outside California. Based on its purchases and sales, Queen Mining contends its business operations and Nelson’s employment affected interstate commerce and, therefore, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA; 9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.) governs the arbitration agreement. Nelson was employed by Queen Mining from 2015 to October 2022. As part of Queen Mining’s onboarding and orientation process, new employees are provided with written information and pamphlets, fill out various forms, and sign related acknowledgments. The documents provided to Nelson included Queen Mining’s 31-page employee handbook dated 2015. The employee handbook included an “ARBITRATION AGREEMENT” on pages 30 and 31. Its first paragraph stated that, with certain exceptions, the employee and Queen Mining agreed to submit any dispute regarding employee’s…