Filed 4/21/14 Carmona v. Lincoln Millennium Car Wash CA2/8

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for 

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IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

ESTEBAN H. CARMONA et al.,

Plaintiffs and Respondents,

v.

LINCOLN MILLENNIUM CAR WASH, 

INC., et al.,

Defendants and Appellants.

 B248143

 (Los Angeles County

 Super. Ct. No. BC484951)

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Yvette M. 

Palazuelos, Judge. Affirmed.

Blank Rome, Howard M. Knee and Kathy PourSanae for Defendants and 

Appellants.

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Victor Viramontes and 

Jorge M. Castillo for Plaintiffs and Respondents.

* * * * * *
2

Defendant car wash companies Lincoln Millennium Car Wash, Inc. (doing 

business as Millennium Car Wash), and Silver Wash, Inc. (doing business as Santa 

Monica Car Wash and Detailing), appeal from the trial court’s order denying their 

petition to compel arbitration. Plaintiffs Esteban H. Carmona, Marcial H. Carmona, 

Pedro Cruz, and Yoel Isail Matute Casco are or were employed by the car wash

companies and filed a putative class action against them for wage and hour violations. 

The trial court held the arbitration agreement at issue was unconscionable and refused to 

enforce it. We find no error and affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

1. The Agreement

Each plaintiff signed an employment agreement containing an arbitration clause.

The agreements contain between four and six pages, depending on the plaintiff. The 

pertinent portions of each plaintiff’s agreement are identical. The agreements contain the 

following arbitration clause, which was initialed by the plaintiffs:

“Settlement by Arbitration

Any dispute under or out of or regarding any aspect of employee’s 

employment, including its information, or any act which would violate any 

provision in this employment contract, shall be resolved exclusively 

through final and binding arbitration by an experienced licensed [sic] to 

practice law in California and selected in accordance with the expedited 

Employment Dispute rules of the American Arbitration Association in 

effect at the time of such dispute, pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act. 

Judgment will be on any award by arbitrator’s by [sic] in any court having 

jurisdiction.”1

 

1 The employment agreements contain numerous apparent errors such that they are 

unnecessarily confusing at points, as may become clear in the excerpts we quote. For 

instance, there appears to be an omitted word in the arbitration provision between 

“experienced” and “licensed.” The phrase should likely read “an experienced [arbitrator] 

licensed to practice law in California.” As another example, the last sentence of this 

provision appears to contain several typos, but it likely means that judgment shall be had 

on any award rendered by an arbitrator.
3

Directly under the arbitration clause, the agreements also contain the following 

confidentiality clause:

“Confidential Information

“I acknowledge that I have been informed that it is the policy of the 

Employee to maintain as secret and confidential all information relating to 

[the car wash] and my employment.

“I agree and understand that any problems or concerns with anything 

related to my at will employment with [sic] be discussed with management 

and ownership so it can be resolved before any information is divulged to 

any persons, firms, corporations, media agency, governmental entities or 

agencies, other entities [sic].”

In addition to this stand-alone confidentiality clause, the agreements contain a 

subagreement entitled “Confidentiality Agreement,” which spans approximately a page 

and a half (the confidentiality subagreement). This subagreement contains yet another

heading entitled “Confidential Information.” This section states, among other things:

“Confidential Information. Employee acknowledges that he/she has 

learned and will learn Confidential Information, as defined herein, relating 

to the business conducted by [the car wash]. Employee agrees that he/she 

will not, except in the normal and proper course of his/her duties, disclose 

or enable anyone else to disclose or use, either during the Employment 

Term or subsequent thereto for the applicable period of, any such 

Confidential Information without prior written approval from [the car 

wash].

“‘Confidential Information’ shall include, but not [be] limited to, the 

following types of information, both existing and contemplated, and 

regarding [the car wash]; corporate information, including contractual 

licensing arrangements, plans, strategies, tactics, policies, resolutions, 

patent applications and any litigation or negotiations; marketing 

information, including sales or product plans, strategies, tactics, methods, 

customers, prospects, or market research data; financial information, 

including costs and performance data, debt arrangements, equity structure, 

investors and holdings; operational formulae, control and inspection 

practices and background information suppliers; technical information, 

including machinery, designs, drawings and specifications; and personnel 

information, including personnel lists, resumes [sic], pay rates, personnel 

data, organizational structure and performance evaluations.”
4

The confidentiality subagreement contains the following enforceability clause:

“Enforceability. The Employee understands that [the car wash]’s position 

is highly dependent on the Confidential Information.[] Any disclosure or 

breach of this Agreement will cause immediate, irreparable harm to [the car 

wash]. THAT IS TO INCLUDE any information shared with other 

employees of the company. Any breach or threatened breach of this 

Agreement, therefore may be present [sic] to either a court or binding 

arbitrator for enforcement by both injunction and damages. In the event 

that [the car wash] institutes litigation or arbitration seeking enforcement of 

this Agreement, [the car wash] shall be entitled to recover reasonable 

attorney fees and costs incurred in such litigation or arbitration.”

Both the arbitration clause and the stand-alone confidentiality clause have been 

translated into Spanish. No part of the confidentiality subagreement, including the 

enforceability clause, has been translated into Spanish.

Plaintiff Esteban Carmona’s2 native language is Spanish. He could not speak or 

read English when he started working at Millennium Car Wash. Two weeks after he

started working at the car wash, the manager gave Esteban what he thought was a work 

application. Parts of the document were written in Spanish and others were written in 

English. Esteban did not understand the parts in English. It was his understanding he 

had to sign the document in the form presented to him, otherwise he would not be 

permitted to work at the car wash. The car wash managers never explained the document 

to him, and no one told him he was waiving his right to appear before a court. In fact, he 

did not think he was waiving this right by signing the document. He did not understand 

what an arbitration proceeding meant. He never received any additional documents from 

the car wash regarding arbitration proceedings.

Similarly, plaintiff Matute Casco’s native language is Spanish. He can read very 

little Spanish and cannot read English at all. When he applied to work at Santa Monica 

 

2 Because there are two Carmona plaintiffs, we will refer to Esteban Carmona by his 

first name to avoid any confusion. We do not intend this informality to reflect a lack of 

respect.
5

Car Wash and Detailing he was given what he thought was a work application. Parts 

were written in Spanish and others were written in English. He was given just a few 

minutes to review the document. He did not understand any of the parts written in

English. It was also his understanding he had to sign the document in the form presented 

to him, otherwise he would not be permitted to work at the car wash. The car wash 

managers did not explain the document to him either. No one told him he was waiving 

his right to appear before a court, and in fact, he did not think he was waiving this right 

by signing the document. He did not understand what an arbitration proceeding meant. 

He never received any additional documents from the car wash regarding arbitration 

proceedings.3

Before moving on, we find it necessary to clarify exactly what constitutes the 

arbitration agreement here. There is, of course, the clause entitled “Settlement by 

Arbitration,” which we refer to as the arbitration clause. Read properly, the stand-alone 

confidentiality clause also relates to arbitration. This clause requires employees to 

discuss any disputes with management before divulging any information about the car 

wash companies to “any persons, firms, corporations, media agency, governmental 

entities or agencies, [or] other entities.” Thus, before going to any attorneys or 

submitting anything to a trial court or dispute resolution entity such as the American 

Arbitration Association (AAA), the employees are required to talk to the car wash

companies. Additionally, the enforceability clause in the confidentiality subagreement 

also pertains to certain disputes between employee and employer and arbitration rights.

Despite the fact that these clauses are under separate headings and, in the case of 

the enforceability clause, are on different pages, they are all parts of the same 

employment agreement and should be read in conjunction to ascertain the entire

“arbitration agreement.” (See Civ. Code, §§ 1641 [“The whole of a contract is to be 

 

3 The other two plaintiffs, Marcial Carmona and Cruz, did not file declarations in 

the trial court.
6

taken together, so as to give effect to every part, if reasonably practicable, each clause

helping to interpret the other.”], 1642 [“Several contracts relating to the same matters, 

between the same parties, and made as parts of substantially one transaction, are to be 

taken together.”].)

2. Trial Court’s Ruling on the Petition to Compel Arbitration

The trial court denied the car wash companies’ petition to compel arbitration. The 

court held the agreement to arbitrate was unconscionable. First, it held the agreement 

was procedurally unconscionable. It noted the car wash companies conceded the 

agreement was procedurally unconscionable. The court found the car wash companies

presented the agreement on a “take it or leave it basis,” they did not provide the 

applicable rules of the AAA, and they gave plaintiffs insufficient time to review the 

agreement. Further, the car wash companies translated some parts of the agreement into 

Spanish, but chose not to translate some key provisions. This “amount[ed] to a large 

amount of procedural unconscionability.”

Second, the court held the agreement was substantively unconscionable for lack of 

mutuality. The enforceability clause allowed the car wash companies to bring their 

claims for damages or injunctive relief against plaintiffs in court, but plaintiffs were 

restricted to arbitration. The clause also stated any breach of the confidentiality 

subagreement would result in immediate, irreparable harm to the car wash, and plaintiffs 

did not get the benefit of a parallel presumption on their claims. The enforceability 

clause further permitted the car wash companies to recover their attorney fees while 

failing to give plaintiffs the same right. In addition, a representative of the car wash

companies did not sign the agreements. In all, the court held the agreement was 

permeated with procedural and substantive unconscionability and refused to enforce it.

The car wash companies filed a timely notice of appeal from the order denying 

their petition.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

“On appeal from the denial of a motion to compel arbitration, ‘we review the 

arbitration agreement de novo to determine whether it is legally enforceable, applying 
7

general principles of California contract law.’” (Baker v. Osborne Development Corp.

(2008) 159 Cal.App.4th 884, 892.) Thus, unconscionability is a question of law we 

review de novo. (Ibid.) To the extent the trial court’s determination on the issue turned 

on the resolution of contested facts, we would review the court’s factual determinations 

for substantial evidence. (Ibid.) The evidence is not disputed in this case, however.

We review the court’s decision whether to sever portions of the arbitration 

agreement for abuse of discretion. (Lhotka v. Geographic Expeditions, Inc. (2010) 181 

Cal.App.4th 816, 821.)

DISCUSSION

If a court finds as a matter of law that a contract or any clause of a contract is 

unconscionable, the court may refuse to enforce the contract or clause, or it may limit the 

application of any unconscionable clause so as to avoid any unconscionable result. (Civ. 

Code, § 1670.5, subd. (a).) A petition to compel arbitration based on a written arbitration 

agreement must be granted unless grounds exist to revoke the agreement. (Code Civ. 

Proc., §§ 1281, 1281.2, subd. (b).) An agreement to arbitrate, like any other contract, is 

subject to revocation if the agreement is unconscionable. (Armendariz v. Foundation 

Health Psychcare Services, Inc. (2000) 24 Cal.4th 83, 98 (Armendariz).)

“‘[U]nconscionability has both a “procedural” and a “substantive” element,’ the 

former focusing on ‘“oppression”’ or ‘“surprise”’ due to unequal bargaining power, the 

latter on ‘“overly harsh”’ or ‘“one-sided”’ results. [Citation.] ‘The prevailing view is 

that [procedural and substantive unconscionability] must both be present in order for a 

court to exercise its discretion to refuse to enforce a contract or clause under the doctrine 

of unconscionability.’ [Citation.] But they need not be present in the same degree. 

‘Essentially a sliding scale is invoked which disregards the regularity of the procedural 

process of the contract formation, that creates the terms, in proportion to the greater 

harshness or unreasonableness of the substantive terms themselves.’ [Citations.] In other 

words, the more substantively oppressive the contract term, the less evidence of 

procedural unconscionability is required to come to the conclusion that the term is 

unenforceable, and vice versa.” (Armendariz, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 114.)
8

1. Procedural Unconscionability

The car wash companies concede procedural unconscionability on appeal, as they 

did in the trial court. We nevertheless address this prong to explain that we agree with 

the trial court the degree of procedural unconscionability here is high, at least with 

respect to the two plaintiffs who provided declarations. “The procedural element 

addresses the circumstances of contract negotiation and formation, focusing on 

oppression or surprise due to unequal bargaining power.” (Pinnacle Museum Tower 

Assn. v. Pinnacle Market Development (US), LLC (2012) 55 Cal.4th 223, 246

(Pinnacle).) Oppression arises from an inequality of bargaining power, when one party 

has no real power to negotiate or a meaningful choice. Surprise occurs when the 

allegedly unconscionable provision is hidden. (Id. at p. 247.) Here, we have both

oppression and surprise.

Oppression generally “takes the form of a contract of adhesion, ‘“which, imposed 

and drafted by the party of superior bargaining strength, relegates to the subscribing party 

only the opportunity to adhere to the contract or reject it.”’” (Little v. Auto Stiegler, Inc.

(2003) 29 Cal.4th 1064, 1071.) In the case of arbitration agreements in the employment 

context, “‘the economic pressure exerted by employers on all but the most sought-after 

employees may be particularly acute, for the arbitration agreement stands between the 

employee and necessary employment, and few employees are in a position to refuse a job 

because of an arbitration requirement.’” (Ibid., quoting Armendariz, supra, 24 Cal.4th at 

p. 115.)

The undisputed evidence showed these arbitration agreements were procedurally 

unconscionable. The car wash companies drafted these agreements and presented a 

printed form to Esteban and Matute Casco, who both indicated that if they did not sign 

the agreement in the form presented, they would not be permitted to work at the car wash. 
9

(Trivedi v. Curexo Technology Corp. (2010) 189 Cal.App.4th 387, 393.) There is no 

indication they had the opportunity to negotiate any of the terms.4

Although the agreement referenced the employment dispute rules of the AAA, the 

car wash companies did not provide those rules. Failure to provide the applicable 

arbitration rules is another factor that supports procedural unconscionability. (Samaniego 

v. Empire Today, LLC (2012) 205 Cal.App.4th 1138, 1146 (Samaniego); Trivedi v. 

Curexo Technology Corp., supra, 189 Cal.App.4th at p. 393; Harper v. Ultimo (2003) 

113 Cal.App.4th 1402, 1406.) This failure contributes to oppression because the 

employee “is forced to go to another source to find out the full import of what he or she is 

about to sign -- and must go to that effort prior to signing.” (Harper v. Ultimo, supra, at 

p. 1406.) Additionally, the arbitration agreement itself does not explain what arbitration 

means, no one explained the arbitration agreement to plaintiffs, and in Matute Casco’s 

case, he was given only a few minutes to review the multi-page employment agreement. 

(Wherry v. Award, Inc. (2011) 192 Cal.App.4th 1242, 1247 [among factors considered by 

court in finding arbitration provision procedurally unconscionable were that “[n]o one 

described the agreement’s contents and plaintiffs were given but a few minutes to review 

and sign it”].)

What elevates this case to a high degree of procedural unconscionability, however, 

is the element of surprise regarding a key clause, the enforceability clause. We discuss 

the import of the enforceability clause more in the following part. The car wash 

 

4 We recognize “a predispute arbitration agreement is not invalid merely because it 

is imposed as a condition of employment. [T]he mandatory nature of an arbitration 

agreement does not, by itself, render the agreement unenforceable.” (Lagatree v. Luce, 

Forward, Hamilton & Scripps (1999) 74 Cal.App.4th 1105, 1122-1123, italics added.) 

But the adhesive nature of a contract is one factor the courts may consider in determining 

the degree of procedural unconscionability. (Little v. Auto Stiegler, Inc., supra, 29 

Cal.4th at p. 1071.) And as we explain further, the agreement here went beyond just an 

adhesive contract presented as a condition of employment. Several other factors 

contributed to the agreement’s procedural and substantive unconscionability.
10

companies hid the enforceability clause and the entire confidentiality subagreement by 

failing to translate that portion of the agreement into Spanish. Esteban and Matute Casco 

could not read English, and yet the car wash companies provided the enforceability 

clause in English only. The car wash companies evidently knew the plaintiffs required 

Spanish translations because they provided some translation.5 The record does not reveal

why the car wash companies did not translate the entirety of the employment agreement. 

In sum, with both oppression and surprise present, there is no question the arbitration 

agreement was procedurally unconscionable.

2. Substantive Unconscionability 

To reiterate, we assess unconscionability with a sliding scale approach. 

(Armendariz, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 114.) In light of the high degree of procedural 

unconscionability, even a low degree of substantive unconscionability could render the 

arbitration agreement unconscionable. The degree of substantive unconscionability here 

was not particularly low.

“Given the lack of choice and the potential disadvantages that even a fair 

arbitration system can harbor for employees, we must be particularly attuned to claims 

that employers with superior bargaining power have imposed one-sided, substantively 

unconscionable terms as part of an arbitration agreement.” (Armendariz, supra, 24 

Cal.4th at p. 115.) “Substantive unconscionability pertains to the fairness of an 

agreement’s actual terms and to assessments of whether they are overly harsh or onesided. [Citations.] A contract term is not substantively unconscionable when it merely 

gives one side a greater benefit; rather, the term must be ‘so one-sided as to “shock the 

conscience.”’” (Pinnacle, supra, 55 Cal.4th at p. 246.)

 

5 This holds true for the two plaintiffs who did not provide declarations as well. We 

do not know for certain whether they could read English, but their agreements are also 

partially translated into Spanish. The inference is that they could not read English either.
11

“‘[T]he paramount consideration in assessing [substantive] conscionability is 

mutuality.’” (Nyulassy v. Lockheed Martin Corp. (2004) 120 Cal.App.4th 1267, 1281.) 

As our Supreme Court reasoned in Armendariz: “Given the disadvantages that may exist 

for plaintiffs arbitrating disputes, it is unfairly one-sided for an employer with superior 

bargaining power to impose arbitration on the employee as plaintiff but not to accept such 

limitations when it seeks to prosecute a claim against the employee, without at least some 

reasonable justification for such one-sidedness based on ‘business realities.’ As has been 

recognized ‘“unconscionability turns not only on a ‘one-sided’ result, but also on an 

absence of ‘justification’ for it.”’ [Citation.] If the arbitration system established by the 

employer is indeed fair, then the employer as well as the employee should be willing to 

submit claims to arbitration. Without reasonable justification for this lack of mutuality, 

arbitration appears less as a forum for neutral dispute resolution and more as a means of 

maximizing employer advantage. Arbitration was not intended for this purpose.” 

(Armendariz, supra, 24 Cal.4th at pp. 117-118.)

Here, the arbitration agreement is lacking in mutuality in that it “requir[es]

arbitration only for the claims of the weaker party but a choice of forums for the claims 

of the stronger party.” (Armendariz, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 119.) Reading the arbitration 

clause alone, one might think the agreement to arbitrate is mutual; the clause states that 

“[a]ny dispute” regarding the plaintiffs’ employment shall be resolved exclusively 

through arbitration. But notably, only the employees initialed next to the clause, and only 

they signed the agreement. Nowhere do the car wash companies indicate they were 

bound by the clause. The only party clearly agreeing to the clause was the employee. As 

noted in Armendariz, “the lack of mutuality can be manifested as much by what the 

agreement does not provide as by what it does.” (Id. at p. 120.)

It becomes clear the car wash companies have not agreed to arbitrate all

employment related disputes when one gets to the enforceability clause. This clause 

gives the car wash companies the choice of either court or arbitration when pursuing 

breaches of the confidentiality subagreement: “Any breach or threatened breach of this 

Agreement, therefore may be present [sic] to either a court or binding arbitrator for 
12

enforcement by both injunction and damages.” The choice of forums is available only to 

the car wash companies. The employees would never be in a position to pursue the car 

wash companies for breach of the confidentiality subagreement. The subagreement 

defines confidential information and imposes a duty on the employees not to disclose 

such information, but it does not impose any duties or obligations on the car wash

companies. And the employees’ potential exposure to liability for breach is not 

insignificant, given how broadly the car wash companies have defined confidential 

information and breach. Confidential information includes things as mundane as pay 

rates and performance evaluations, and a breach can include sharing information with 

outsiders and merely sharing information with other employees of the company.

Courts have repeatedly found this type of one-sided provision -- where the 

employer exempts claims only it would bring from arbitration while restricting any 

employee claims to arbitration -- to be substantively unconscionable. (See, e.g., 

Armendariz, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 120 [substantively unconscionable provision required 

employees to arbitrate wrongful termination claims but employer had no corresponding 

obligation to arbitrate its trade secret claims against employees]; Samaniego, supra, 205 

Cal.App.4th at p. 1147 [substantively unconscionable provision required employees to 

arbitrate all claims but exempted from arbitration employer claims “seeking declaratory 

and preliminary injunctive relief to protect [employer’s] proprietary information and 

noncompetition/nonsolicitation provisions”]; Fitz v. NCR Corp. (2004) 118 Cal.App.4th 

702, 725 [substantively unconscionable provision compelled arbitration of claims more 

likely to be brought by employee but exempted from arbitration claims most likely to be 

brought by employer, such as violations of noncompetition agreement or disclosure of 

confidential information]; O’Hare v. Municipal Resource Consultants (2003) 107 

Cal.App.4th 267, 274 [substantively unconscionable provision required employees to 

arbitrate any work related dispute but exempted from arbitration employer claims for 

injunctive and equitable relief based upon employees’ alleged breaches of confidentiality 

provisions].) The trial court did not err in finding the same type of one-sided agreement 

to be substantively unconscionable here.
13

Moreover, the car wash companies have not justified the lack of mutuality with 

reference to business realities. (Armendariz, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 117-118

[“‘“[U]nconscionability turns not only on a ‘one-sided’ result, but also on an absence of 

‘justification’ for it.”’”].) The confidentiality subagreement simply states the car wash

companies’ position is “highly dependent on the Confidential Information.” This 

conclusory statement is no explanation, and neither the record nor the briefing in this case 

offers facts justifying the one-sidedness.

Instead, the car wash companies argue the enforceability clause represents a 

“bilateral choice of venue provision.” (Capitalization and underscoring omitted.) They 

assert the choice of forums is actually left up to the employee. If the employee agrees to 

the arbitration clause, then the choice of forum in the enforceability clause is taken away 

from the car wash companies, and they must choose arbitration. But if the employee 

does not agree to the arbitration clause, the car wash companies are free to bring their 

confidentiality claims in court. We are not persuaded. The plain language of the 

enforceability clause gives the car wash companies a choice between court and 

arbitration. The clause does not tie that choice to any choice by the employee or restrict 

in any manner the car wash companies’ ability to choose between forums. The clear

language of the contract controls (Civ. Code, § 1638), and in this case, it shows the 

agreement to be lacking in mutuality.

The arbitration agreement lacks mutuality not just in available forums, but in a few

other ways, and in none of these cases is there a justification proffered for the onesidedness. Attorney fees are one of these other points on which the car wash companies

unilaterally benefit. The enforceability clause permits the car wash companies to recover 

reasonable attorney fees and costs whenever they institute litigation or arbitration to 

enforce the confidentiality subagreement, not just when they prevail. No reciprocal

provision exists allowing employees to recover attorney fees and costs, regardless of 

whether they have instituted the proceedings or prevailed in the proceedings. The car 

wash companies argue the attorney fee provision does not lack mutuality because, as a 

matter of law, it cannot be one-sided, citing Civil Code section 1717. Section 1717 does, 
14

indeed, make “an otherwise unilateral right reciprocal, thereby ensuring mutuality of 

remedy . . . ‘when the contract provides the right to one party but not to the other.’”

[Citation.] In this situation, the effect of section 1717 is to allow recovery of attorney 

fees by whichever contracting party prevails, ‘whether he or she is the party specified in 

the contract or not.’” (Santisas v. Goodin (1998) 17 Cal.4th 599, 610-611.)

Still, the attorney fee provision is not conscionable merely because section 1717 

might provide employees relief from the provision’s one-sidedness. The court’s 

reasoning in Samaniego demonstrates the flaw in this argument. There, the arbitration 

agreement contained a unilateral fee-shifting provision requiring employees to pay any 

attorney fees the employer, Empire, might incur “‘to enforce any of its rights’” under the 

employment agreement. (Samaniego, supra, 205 Cal.App.4th at p. 1143.) The court 

held: “[S]uch a clause contributes to a finding of unconscionability. [Citation.] Empire 

argues this clause is of no moment because, after all, one-way fee-shifting provisions that 

benefit only employers violate both the Labor Code and commercial arbitration rules, 

‘which means that Empire cannot recover its attorney’s fees from plaintiffs even if it 

prevails in arbitration.’ In other words, according to Empire, it isn’t unconscionable 

because it is illegal and, hence, unenforceable. To state the premise is to refute Empire’s 

logic. The argument is unpersuasive.” (Id. at p. 1147.)

The car wash companies’ argument represents the same sort of flawed logic. 

“‘Section 1717 was enacted to make all parties to a contract, especially an “adhesion 

contract,” equally liable for attorney’s fees and other necessary disbursements.’” (System

Inv. Corp. v. Union Bank (1971) 21 Cal.App.3d 137, 163.) “The statute was designed to 

establish mutuality of remedy when a contractual provision makes recovery of attorney 

fees available to only one party, and to prevent the oppressive use of one-sided attorney 

fee provisions.” (Trope v. Katz (1995) 11 Cal.4th 274, 285, italics added.) In other 

words, the statute was enacted to prevent the application of substantively unconscionable 

attorney fee provisions. According to the car wash companies, the attorney fees

provision is not unconscionable because it is oppressively one-sided and unenforceable as 
15

written. To quote our colleagues in Samaniego, “[t]o state the premise is to refute [their]

logic.” (Samaniego, 205 Cal.App.4th at p. 1147.)

In addition to lacking mutuality in forums and attorney fees, the arbitration 

agreement lacks mutuality when it presumes harm to the car wash companies in their 

confidentiality claims. The enforceability clause states any disclosure or breach of the 

confidentiality subagreement “will cause immediate, irreparable harm to [the car wash

companies].” Irreparable harm is one of the factors courts consider when deciding 

whether to issue an injunction. (Jay Bharat Developers, Inc. v. Minidis (2008) 167 

Cal.App.4th 437, 446.) The agreement does not state a reciprocal presumption of harm 

favoring employees in their claims.

Finally, the arbitration agreement lacks mutuality in that the stand-alone 

confidentiality clause requires employees to discuss with the car wash companies “any 

problems or concerns with anything related to” their employment before disclosing any 

information to outsiders, including attorneys, courts, or arbitration organizations. The 

employer has no corresponding obligation under the agreement to discuss its disputes 

with employees before taking action in court or through arbitration. In Nyulassy v. 

Lockheed Martin Corp., supra, 120 Cal.App.4th at pages 1282-1283, the court held a 

similar provision was one of three provisions contributing to the substantive 

unconscionability of an arbitration agreement. As a precondition to arbitration, the 

employee was required to attempt to resolve any employment disputes by engaging in 

discussions with several levels of management. (Id. at p. 1273.) The court held “on its 

face, this provision may present a laudable mechanism for resolving employment 

disputes informally, [but] it connotes a less benign goal. Given the unilateral nature of 

the arbitration agreement, requiring plaintiff to submit to an employer-controlled dispute 

resolution mechanism (i.e., one without a neutral mediator) suggests that defendant 

would receive a ‘free peek’ at plaintiff’s case, thereby obtaining an advantage if and 

when plaintiff were to later demand arbitration.” (Id. at pp. 1282-1283.) We likewise 
16

conclude this unilateral “free peek” provision contributes to the substantive 

unconscionability of an agreement that already lacks mutuality.6

3. Severability

Having found, consistent with trial court’s decision, that the arbitration agreement 

is both procedurally and substantively unconscionable, the only remaining question is 

whether the court abused its discretion in determining the agreement was permeated by 

unconscionability and refusing to sever the unconscionable provisions. The car wash

companies contend the court erred because all of the unconscionable provisions are 

contained in one clause, the enforceability clause, which can be easily severed while still 

preserving the agreement to arbitrate in the arbitration clause. We conclude the court did 

not err.

A trial court has the discretion to refuse to enforce an agreement as a whole if it is 

permeated by the unconscionability. (Armendariz, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 122.) “The 

overarching inquiry is whether ‘“the interests of justice . . . would be furthered”’ by 

severance.” (Id. at p. 124.) If the central purpose of a contractual provision, such as an 

arbitration agreement, is tainted with illegality, then the provision as a whole cannot be 

enforced. If the illegality is collateral to the main purpose of the contractual provision, 

and can be severed or restricted from the rest, then severance is appropriate. (Ibid.)

When an arbitration agreement contains multiple unconscionable provisions, 

“[s]uch multiple defects indicate a systematic effort to impose arbitration on an employee 

not simply as an alternative to litigation, but as an inferior forum that works to the 

employer’s advantage.” (Armendariz, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 124.) Under such 

 

6 The car wash companies urge us to disregard this “free peek” argument because 

plaintiffs did not raise it in the trial court. We decline this invitation and exercise our 

discretion to consider the argument. The principle that an appellate court ordinarily will 

not consider arguments raised for the first time on appeal does not apply when “the new 

argument raises a pure issue of law on undisputed facts.” (C9 Ventures v. SVC-West, L.P.

(2012) 202 Cal.App.4th 1483, 1492.) Whether this provision is unconscionable is a 

question of law, and as we previously noted, the evidence is not disputed in this case.
17

circumstances, a trial court does not abuse its discretion in determining the arbitration 

agreement is permeated by an unlawful purpose.

The arbitration agreement here suffered from multiple defects demonstrating a 

systemic lack of mutuality that favored the car wash companies, including the exemption 

from arbitration of the car wash companies’ confidentiality claims, the attorney fees 

provision, the “free peek” provision, and the presumption of harm in favor of the car 

wash companies. We therefore conclude the court did not err in finding the agreement 

permeated by unconscionability and refusing severance.

DISPOSITION

The order is affirmed. Respondents to recover costs on appeal.

FLIER, J.

WE CONCUR:

BIGELOW, P. J.

RUBIN, J.