Proof Of Handwritten Signature May Be Easier Than Proof Of Electronic Signature.
The trial court found that the employer failed to prove employees had signed an arbitration agreement, that the agreement was unconscionable, and the court rejected the employer's efforts to compel arbitration. The Court of Appeal reversed. Leroye Iyere et al. v. Wise Auto Group, A163967 (1/4 1/19/23) (Pollak, Brown, Goldman).
In the trial court, the employees provided declarations that they had been given many documents to hurriedly sign, that they had not read them, and that if they had read them, they would not have signed them, knowing that they were giving up rights by agreeing to arbitrate. But they did not squarely deny that handwritten signatures of their names were their signatures. While the trial court refused under those circumstances to find that the employees had signed, Justice Pollak explained: "It is hornbook law that failing to read an agreement before signing it does not prevent formation of a contract."
The panel disagrees with Gamboa v. Northeast Community Clinic, 72 Cal.App.5th 158. (2021), which cited cases rejecting proof of electronic signatures under similar circumstances in order to reject proof of a handwritten signature. Justice Pollak explains: "Authenticating an electronic signature if challenged can be quite daunting. . . If a party confronted with his or her handwritten signature on an arbitration agreement is unable to allege that the signature is inauthentic or forged, the fact that that person does not recall signing the agreement neither creates a factual dispute as to the signature’s authenticity nor affords an independent basis to find that a contract was not formed."
The employees argued that the arbitration provision, which was governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, was unconscionable, because California Labor Code § 925 provides that an employer cannot require an employee who resides and works in California, as a condition of employment, to agree to adjudicate a claim arising in California outside of California. But the FAA does not displace state substantive law, which can be asserted in arbitration, so this argument failed.
The employees also argued that the contract, which allowed the party against whom a claim was made to choose between two arbitration providers, and that this would benefit the employer as the party against whom a claim was more likely to be made. But the panel believed this would not provide a significant advantage to the employer, as both dispute resolution providers were well recognized and respected dispute resolution providers.