Sky Sports, Inc. v. Superior Court

Petitioner Sky Sports, Inc., doing business as Sky Security Services (the company), seeks a writ of mandate, directing the respondent court to vacate an order finding that it has waived its right to compel arbitration in this class action lawsuit, which seeks damages and penalties for rest break violations (Lab. Code, §§ 203, 226.7). The company raised the arbitration issue to defeat class certification. The company maintained that the putative class representative, Hector Hogan, was not an adequate class representative because his claims were not typical of the majority of the class who had signed arbitration agreements. Although Hogan had not signed the company’s arbitration agreement, we must determine if the company waived its right to enforce the agreements because it did not move to compel arbitration before certification of a class that included parties to the agreement. We conclude the statutory requirements to compel arbitration under Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.2 1 were not satisfied until the class was certified. Thus, any purported delay in bringing the motion does not constitute a waiver of the right to move to compel arbitration. We grant the…