Esquer

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff, who began working as a truck driver at Conico in 2018, sued defendants after they terminated his employment in 2023. His operative complaint pleads eleven causes of action including harassment, retaliation for making complaints about harassment and for whistleblowing, wrongful termination, various Labor Code violations, and other employment-related torts. Defendants moved to compel arbitration of the dispute. They contended Esquer signed an agreement during his onboarding process that mandated arbitration of all claims or controversies arising out of his recruitment, employment, or termination of employment. Defendants attached the purported arbitration agreement to their motion, and the document bears the handwritten, printed names of Ricardo Esquer and M. Goldberg, signatures beneath those names, and handwritten April 11, 2018, dates beneath the signatures. Defendants also filed a declaration by Michael Goldberg in support of their motion to compel arbitration. Goldberg declared

1 They are Hong Holdings dba Conico Wholesale, LLC (Conico), Mike Goldberg (Goldberg), John Yu, and Larry Grand. We shall refer to them collectively as “defendants.”

2 he was…