Malone

Plaintiff and petitioner Keeya Malone brought the instant wage and hour action against her former employer, defendant and real party in interest California Bank & Trust (CB&T). CB&T moved to compel arbitration, pursuant to a clause in its employee handbook. Malone opposed the petition arguing, inter alia, that the arbitration agreement was unconscionable. CB&T responded that the arbitration agreement contained a so-called “delegation clause,” providing that issues relating to the enforceability of the arbitration agreement were themselves delegated to the arbitrator for resolution. The dispute in this case then turned to the issue of whether the delegation clause itself was unconscionable. Malone relied exclusively on three cases which held such clauses to be unenforceable: Murphy v. Check ’N Go of California, Inc. (2007) 156 Cal.App.4th 138 [ 67 Cal.Rptr.3d 120 ] (Murphy), Bruni v. Didion (2008) 160 Cal.App.4th 1272 [ 73 Cal.Rptr.3d 395 ] (Bruni), and Ontiveros v. DHL Express (USA), Inc. (2008) 164 Cal.App.4th 494 [ 79 Cal.Rptr.3d 471 ] (Ontiveros).

The trial court, however, concluded that Murphy, Bruni, and Ontiveros were no longer good law after the United States…