Madrigal

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff and appellant Jennifer M. Madrigal appeals from a judgment confirming an arbitration award in favor of defendant and respondent Garfield Beach CVS, LLC (CVS) on Madrigal’s various employment-related claims. The arbitration award determined that after application of Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.12—the tolling provision of the California Arbitration Act (Code Civ. Proc., § 1280 et seq. (CAA))1— Madrigal’s claims were barred by the applicable statutes of limitation contained within the CVS-employee arbitration agreement, which applied the same time bars “that would apply in court.” The terms of this agreement had been expressly incorporated into the parties’ voluntary and joint written stipulation to submit the dispute to binding arbitration after Madrigal’s complaint was filed in the trial court. The court approved the joint stipulation—the arbitration contract here— and ordered the case to arbitration, later denying Madrigal’s petition to vacate the award and granting CVS’s petition to confirm it, followed by entry of judgment against Madrigal. On appeal, Madrigal contends she never entered into the CVS arbitration agreement during her…