Advocates Successfully Defeats Instacart’s Appeal

On August 12, 2021, the California First District Court of Appeal issued an opinion that provided a victory for workers seeking to enforce their rights under the California Labor Code. In its opinion, the First District Court of Appeal denied an appeal by Instacart that sought to reverse the San Francisco Superior Court’s trial court order denying its request to compel arbitration of a Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) action brought by Instacart shopper Christian Malaspina. In denying that request, the trial court followed the Supreme Court’s decision in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348 (Iskanian), which held that a worker’s right to bring a representative action under PAGA cannot be waived and that this state law rule is not preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The First District Court of Appeal rejected Instacart’s arguments that Iskanian was overruled by subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and affirmed the order denying the motion to compel arbitration. The First District Court of Appeal’s decision therefore affirmed the trial court’s order, and provided that Malaspina was entitled to recover his costs on appeal against Instacart.