Campbell v. Sunshine Behavioral Health LLC (2024) 105 Cal.App.5th 419. An hourly employee sued a former employer as part of a punitive class action. The employer stipulated to class wide mediation and waited until the trial court signed an order months later and then stated it would not participate in the mediation and would instead seek arbitration under the provisions of the employee’s employment contract. The Court held that the employer had waived its right to arbitration by sitting on its right to compel arbitration for more than 6 months and there was no justifiable reason for the employer’s delay in seeking arbitration. The employer never attempted as well to dissolve the mediation order or take other action that would require that arbitration proceed.

Cramer v. Claim Base Inc. (2024) 105 Cal.App.5th 741. This is another denial of motion to compel arbitration, this one for claims under the Unfair Competition Law, Consumer Legal Remedy Act and the False Advertising Law. In each case the underlying claims sought injunctive relief. The Court held that arbitration was properly denied when only public injunctive relief was being sought and not any private relief for losses described in the Complaint. The Court also found that consumers were not required to offer evidence of how the public would benefit from the injunctive relief sought because the trial court could base its determination solely on the Complaint’s allegations and the requests for relief which addressed only misrepresentations directed to the public.

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