Merrill v. Action Education Services
Crystal Merrill (Merrill) and Fi Tran (Tran) (collectively, plaintiffs) filed a putative class action against Action Educational Services, Inc. also known as West Coast University, Inc. (defendant) for fraud, misrepresentation, and violation of the unfair competition law (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200 et seq.) (UCL) and other statutes, following their enrollment in defendant’s nursing school program. As part of their enrollment, plaintiffs each signed an enrollment agreement (EA) and one or more retail installment sales contracts (RICs). All of the RICs, and the EA signed by Merrill, contained a provision requiring arbitration of disputes. The EA signed by Tran did not contain an arbitration clause.
Defendant filed a petition to compel arbitration of all of plaintiffs’ claims. The trial court granted the petition to arbitrate plaintiffs’ individual claims under the RICs as well as Merrill’s individual claims under the EA. The court denied the petition to compel arbitration of Tran’s claims under the EA, and stayed those claims, along with plaintiffs’ class claims and their claims under the UCL.
Defendant appeals from the trial court’s order denying the petition to compel arbitration of Tran’s claims under the EA. Defendant also appeals from the order staying plaintiffs’ class claims. Plaintiffs appeal from the order granting the petition to compel arbitration of their individual claims under the RICs and Merrill’s claims under the EA.
We reverse the order denying the petition to compel arbitration of Tran’s claims under the EA. We dismiss defendant’s appeal of the order staying the class claims. We also dismiss plaintiffs’ appeal.
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