California Mediation and Arbitration

Arbitration, Appealability, Jurisdiction, Celebrities: Second District, Div. 7 Declines To Consider Interim Award Of Preliminary Injunctive Relief

Interim Rulings By An Arbitrator Are Not  Reviewable Until A Final Award Is Issued.

        Charlotte Kirk, an actress,  entered into a confidential settlement agreement in 2017 with four men who were entertainment industry executives. The agreement contained an arbitration clause. Claiming that Kirk violated the settlement agreement, the executives filed an arbitration demand naming Kirk, her fiance Neil Marshall, and  two other respondents, and obtained from an emergency arbitrator injunctive relief to enforce confidentiality provisions and to prevent the filing of a lawsuit that  would make confidential information public. Kirk and respondents filed a petition in superior court to vacate the preliminary injunction. The court denied the petition because the preliminary injunction was not an appealable final award, and the  Court of Appeal affirmed. Kirk v. Ratner, B309880 (2/7   2/10/22) (Perluss, Segal, Feuer).

        Cases teach that, "in the context of a series of rulings . . . a particular ruling is an ‘award’ only if that ruling (1) ‘determine[s] all issues that are necessary to the resolution’ of ‘“the controversy”’ being subject to arbitration, and (2) leaves unresolved only those ‘issues’ that are ‘potential,’ ‘conditional’ or that otherwise ‘could not have been determined’ at the time of the ruling.” In Kirk, the Court of Appeal concluded that there was  no "award."

        COMMENT: Apparently the confidential settlement agreement in Kirk settled, among other things, "Kirk’s claims of sexual harassment, infliction of emotional distress and defamation." Perhaps this explains why the entertainment executives did not want the allegations appearing in public pleadings. And there may have been other motives for  keeping other information confidential, e.g., whether money changed hands as part of the settlement, and if so, how much money. These are common reasons for moving claims of sexual harassment into arbitration, and cloaking the arbitration proceeding in confidentiality. In February 2022, Congress moved to end forced arbitration of sexual assault and sexual harassment claims by amending the Federal Arbitration Act. See the February 17, 2022 post by the Procopio law firm. 

 

Arbitration, Celebrities, : Second Circuit Rejects Efforts By Trump Organization To Compel Arbitration

Effort To Compel Arbitration Failed Because Trump And Company Were Nonsignatories Who Distanced Themselves From Contract.

"A full-sized figure of then-President Donald Trump inside the doorway of an abandoned building in Marble Hill, the surviving name of what were the neighboring rural towns of Lutesville and Marble Hill in Bollinger County, Missouri." Carol Highsmith, photographer. 11/20/20. Library of Congress. 

        While we generally limit our posts to California, Ninth Circuit, and SCOTUS cases, we sometimes stray when a celebrity is involved. In Doe v. The Trump Corporation, Donald J. Trump, Donald J. Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, Docket Nos. 20-1228-cv/20-1278-cv (2d Cir. 7/28/21) (Sack, Chin, and Lohier), the celebrity was, well, you know.

            In a  Politico article, Josh Gerstein writes, "A federal appeals court has rejected an attempt by former President Donald Trump and three of his children to force arbitration in a class-action lawsuit accusing him of fraud during the decade he spent as a pitchman for ACN, a business services company featured on 'Celebrity Apprentice.'"

        Plaintiffs alleged Trump and family members induced them with false information to enter into business relationships with non-party appellant, ACN, a "multi-level marketing" company that enlists individuals to work as "Independent Business Owners." While purportedly independent of  ACN, Trump and family allegedly accepted large, secret payments to  pitch ACN. 

        The effort to compel arbitration failed because defendants were not signatories to the arbitration agreement. Claiming they were independent of ACN, Trump and family were unable to benefit from ACN's arbitration clause.