Castro v. Pinnacle Plastering, Inc. CA4/2
Defendant Pinnacle Plastering, Inc. (Pinnacle) appeals a trial court order denying its petition to compel arbitration of a dispute with a former employee. The employee, Asdel Castro, sought to enforce the Labor Code on behalf of the State of California under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA), Labor Code section 2698 et seq. The trial court held the Supreme Court’s decision in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348 (Iskanian) required it to refuse to enforce arbitration.
Pinnacle argues the trial court erred because (i) Castro’s complaint includes individual claims that are subject to arbitration under Iskanian and (ii) Iskanian bars waiver of representative PAGA claims, but not their arbitration. We affirm because Castro’s complaint states only a representative PAGA claim and private parties to a predispute arbitration agreement cannot agree to arbitrate a representative PAGA claim because the state is the real party in interest.
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