Court Opinion

ID: 9846700
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:45:59.678742+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:43.964914
License: Public Domain

HALL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
This case concerns an arbitration agreement more favorable to the employee than most this court sees. It stated plainly that the arbitrator had the exclusive authority to resolve any dispute regarding the agreement’s validity. It permitted modification or revocation by the parties. It allowed Jackson the chance to review it with an attorney prior to signing. In these respects, this was not even a run-of-the-mill arbitration agreement.1 Jackson’s allegations of unconscionability are also vaguer than most.2 He claims, without any specifics, that the agreement was a condition of his employment and non-negotiable, although the latter is contradicted by the agreement itself. He claims that the agreement lacks mutuality, imposes burdensome costs, and includes one-sided discovery, but only speculates that his costs might exceed the expense of litigation and concedes that the discovery provision is not alone unconscionable. So what we have, then, is an arbitration agreement more favorable than most and unconscionability allegations that are thinner than most.
Nonetheless, the majority’s opinion will send this case (not to mention all those run-of-the-mill ones) to a mini-trial in the district court to determine an agreement’s validity based on just the bare allegation of unconscionability, even when the contract language “clearly and unmistakably” *921chooses a different forum for that question. This is counter to the general policy favoring arbitration of disputes. See Mitsubishi Motors Corp. v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc., 473 U.S. 614, 626, 105 S.Ct. 3346, 87 L.Ed.2d 444 (1985) (counseling the resolution of “any doubts concerning the scope of arbitrable issues ... in favor of arbitration, whether the problem at hand is the construction of the contract language itself or an allegation of waiver, delay, or a like defense to arbitrability”). It also makes it difficult to understand what the Supreme Court meant when it said that, although the general rule gives the threshold question of arbitrability to courts, parties may provide for the arbitrator to decide the question instead if they do so “clearly and unmistakably.” AT & T Techs., Inc. v. Commc’ns Workers of Am., 475 U.S. 643, 649, 106 S.Ct. 1415, 89 L.Ed.2d 648 (1986). The exception begins to look very much like the general rule in that courts will be deciding the question of agreement validity under both scenarios, regardless of what the agreement’s language might say about the chosen forum for that question.
In First Options v. Kaplan, Inc., the Supreme Court said a court should not find an agreement “clear and unmistakable” if there is any “silence or ambiguity.”3 514 U.S. 938, 944, 115 S.Ct. 1920, 131 L.Ed.2d 985 (1995) (alterations omitted); cf. EEOC v. Waffle House, Inc., 534 U.S. 279, 289, 122 S.Ct. 754, 151 L.Ed.2d 755 (2002) (“Absent some ambiguity in the agreement, it is the language of the contract that defines the scope of disputes subject to arbitration.”). The majority admits there is no silence or ambiguity here. In Awuah v. Coverall North America, Inc., the out-of-circuit case most on point, the First Circuit found an allegedly unconscionable agreement to be “about as ‘clear and unmistakable’ ” as it could be in stating that agreement validity was for the arbitrator to decide.4 554 F.3d 7, 11 (1st Cir.2009). The majority admits the language is similarly clear and unmistakable here. In light of this, I believe the question of the arbitration agreement’s validity should have gone to the arbitrator, as the parties “clearly and unmistakably provided]” in their agreement.5
*922The majority opinion cites First Options and Awuah, but then expands the district court’s inquiry beyond what those cases envisioned. I respectfully disagree with this expansion. Furthermore, to the extent the district court has a role to play here, it should certainly be a more limited one than the majority envisions, perhaps permitting courts to remain attuned to “well-supported, ” claims of unconscionability or the potential that arbitration might be illusory, while still resolving “any doubts” as to what the parties agreed in favor of arbitration. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc., 473 U.S. 614, 626-27, 105 S.Ct. 3346, 87 L.Ed.2d 444 (1985) (emphasis added); Awuah, 554 F.3d at 13 (finding a “narrow[]” remand appropriate to determine, not unconscionability, but instead whether the litigant could meet a “high” burden to show that arbitration was “truly illusory”); see also United Steelworkers of Am. v. Am. Mfg. Co., 363 U.S. 564, 567-68, 80 S.Ct. 1343, 4 L.Ed.2d 1403 (1960) (“The function of the court is very limited when the parties have agreed to submit all questions of contract interpretation to the arbitrator. It is confined to ascertaining whether the party seeking arbitration is making a claim which on its face is governed by the contract”).
For these reasons, I dissent.

. Compare these provisions with others this court has seen. See, e.g., Nagrampa v. Mail-Coups, Inc., 469 F.3d 1257, 1265, 1281, 1283 (9th Cir.2006) (describing a non-negotiable agreement which addressed some rules by cross-reference only and where the party resisting arbitration claimed she was not even informed about the arbitration provision on page twenty-five of a thirty-page agreement).

. Nagrampa, for example, involved a complaint which asserted causes of action challenging the validity of the arbitration agreement and included forty-one allegations stating facts supporting the causes of action. See id. at 1264, 1266, 1270, 1283. Jackson's complaint is silent as to the arbitration agreement. Vague allegations appear in his opposition to Rent-a-Center’s motion to compel arbitration and are repeated verbatim in the brief to this court.

. The majority cites First Options' statements that "ordinary state-law principles” should be applied to the question of arbitrability, but neglects to mention that these statements came in the context of the Court's discussion of the general rule wherein courts decide the question, rather than the “important qualification” to that rule which is at issue here. 514 U.S. at 944, 115 S.Ct. 1920.

. According to the majority, Awuah held that "where a party to an agreement to arbitrate contends that the arbitration agreement in particular was unconscionable and that he made no meaningful choice to enter the agreement, summary enforcement of the agreement is improper.” Thomas Op. at 918. I respectfully disagree. Awuah explicitly said its concern was not with unconscionability, and instead held that a district court only has the very limited role of determining "whether the arbitration regime ... is structured so as to prevent a litigant from having access to the arbitrator.” See 554 F.3d at 13 (emphasis omitted). Thus, even if an agreement was alleged to be unconscionable, enforcement of the parties’ agreement to send that question to arbitration would still be proper unless the party resisting arbitration met the “high” burden of showing that the arbitration was an illusory remedy. Id.

. The majority cites section 2 of the FAA (and cases referencing that section) regarding the enforceability of unconscionable arbitration agreements. See 9 U.S.C. § 2; Ingle v. Circuit City Stores, Inc., 328 F.3d 1165, 1170 (9th Cir.2003); Nagrampa v. MailCoups, Inc., 469 F.3d 1257, 1264 (9th Cir.2006). However, everyone agrees that unconscionable arbitration agreements should not be enforced. At issue here is who should decide if the agreement is unconscionable when the parties' agreement gives the question to the arbitrator. That issue is not addressed by section two of the FAA. Nor is it addressed by any of *922the other cases the majority cites, with the exception of Awuah, which, as discussed above, supports finding that the parties in this case “clearly and unmistakably” consigned the agreement’s validity to arbitration.