Brunner, Jr. v. Lyft, Inc.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

D. BRUNNER, JR., Case No. 19-cv-04808-VC

Plaintiff,

ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO

v. COMPEL ARBITRATION

LYFT, INC., Re: Dkt. No. 19 Defendant.

In February 2019, Donald Brunner, Jr. filed an arbitral claim with, and paid filing fees to, the American Arbitration Association. He raised claims based on Lyft’s alleged misclassification of him as an independent contractor. So did 106 other drivers that are represented by the same law firms. The AAA split those claimants into five groups; Brunner was placed in Group 3. Lyft, the drivers, and the AAA began to hammer out a schedule for each group. But by August 2019, Lyft still hadn’t paid its filing fees for Group 3 despite multiple reminders from the AAA. Lyft instead requested additional confirmation from the AAA as to which group each invoice related, purportedly to head off the possibility of duplicative payments. The AAA at one point told Lyft that the Group 3 fees had been paid; reversing course a week later, the AAA reported that the fees in fact had not been paid. Lyft and the AAA eventually reached an…