Reyes

INTRODUCTION

Carehouse Healthcare Services, LLC, and Southwest Payroll Services, LLC, appeal from an order denying their petition to compel the arbitration of an employment-related lawsuit filed by Maricela Reyes. Reyes was fired from her job at a Carehouse skilled nursing facility. She filed suit against Carehouse and Southwest, alleging both discrimination and unpaid wages claims. Carehouse and Southwest petitioned to compel arbitration. The trial court denied the petition, citing several features of the agreement it considered substantively unconscionable. We affirm the order, but for different reasons. As to Carehouse, the agreement, taken as a whole, imposed a four-step dispute resolution process on the employee – with arbitration as the last step – and made the first step mandatory. Under ordinary contract law principles – which must be applied to arbitration agreements – preventing Reyes from performing the first step, by firing her outright, excused her from performing the rest of the contract. As to Southwest, nothing in the record established that it was either Reyes’ employer or Carehouse’s agent and therefore encompassed by the arbitration agreement. No evidence…