Wascher v. Southern Cal. Permanente Med. Group
Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (collectively, SCPMG) appeal from the trial court’s order denying their motion to compel their former employee, cancer surgeon Dr. Robert Wascher, to arbitrate his claims against them. The trial court concluded SCPMG failed to meet its burden to establish the existence of a valid arbitration contract governing the parties’ dispute. SCPMG argues ordinary contract interpretation principles and public policy favoring arbitration require the conclusion the parties mutually agreed to arbitrate their disputes. Specifically, SCPMG relies on a practice-wide, internal dispute resolution agreement that SCPMG contends supplemented Wascher’s employment contract and constituted a binding arbitration provision. Wascher highlights numerous flaws in the separate agreement that he claims prevented it from taking effect, alternatively he argues that we may affirm the trial court’s ruling because the supposed arbitration supplement is unconscionable. The trial court concluded no arbitration contract was formed, and therefore did not reach Wascher’s procedural and substantive unconscionability claims.
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