Maplebear, Inc. v. Busick

237 Cal. Rptr. 3d 98, 26 Cal. App. 5th 394
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal, 5th District
DecidedAugust 21, 2018
DocketA151677
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 237 Cal. Rptr. 3d 98 (Maplebear, Inc. v. Busick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal, 5th District primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maplebear, Inc. v. Busick, 237 Cal. Rptr. 3d 98, 26 Cal. App. 5th 394 (Cal. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

Miller, J.

*99The California Arbitration Act (CAA, Code. Civ. Proc., § 1280 et seq.1 ) allows a party to an arbitration to petition the superior court to confirm, correct or vacate an arbitrator's "award," an award that must be set out in writing and "include a determination of all the questions submitted to the arbitrators the decision of which is necessary in order to determine the controversy." (§ 1283.4.) In this case, the arbitrator issued a "partial final award" determining only that the parties' arbitration agreement permits the claimant to move for class certification. The primary issue before us is whether this constituted an "award" that was immediately reviewable by the superior court. When appellant filed a petition in superior court to vacate the "partial final award," the trial court concluded that it had no jurisdiction under the CAA to review it at this preliminary stage. Appellant urges us to remand the case to the trial court to determine the merits of the petition to vacate. We affirm the trial court's order of dismissal.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Appellant Maplebear, Inc. (Instacart) is a same-day grocery delivery service.2 Its customers order groceries through its website or mobile phone application, and Instacart engages shoppers and drivers across the country to select, purchase and deliver the groceries. Donna Busick, who worked in Massachusetts as an Instacart shopper and driver, filed a class action arbitration demand on behalf of herself and similarly situated Massachusetts shoppers and drivers claiming that Instacart violated California law by classifying them as independent contractors rather than employees.

Before the dispute arose, Instacart and Busick had signed an Independent Contractor Agreement (Agreement) stating that disputes between them would be submitted to binding arbitration. Under the terms of the Agreement, the arbitration would be conducted by JAMS under its rules and procedures; the arbitrator would apply California substantive law; the arbitrator had no "power or authority to commit errors of law or legal reasoning"; and "[a]ny action to review the arbitration award for legal error or to have it confirmed, corrected or vacated" would be decided under California law by "a California state court of competent jurisdiction."

After Busick filed her class arbitration demand, and as required by Rule 2 of the JAMS Class Action Procedures (Rule 2), the parties submitted to the arbitrator the threshold issue whether the Agreement allowed Busick to seek certification of a claimant class within the arbitration.3 In a document entitled, "Partial Final Award on Clause Construction Regarding Putative Class Arbitration" (partial final award),4 the arbitrator answered the question in the affirmative, and stated that her ruling "determines only that [Busick] may *100move for class certification as part of the mandated arbitration. It does not address the appropriateness of such certification, nor the underlying claim that [Instacart] misclassified claimant and others similarly situated."

Instacart filed a petition in superior court to vacate the partial final award, invoking sections 1285 and 1286.2.5 Instacart argued that the arbitrator made legal errors in concluding that the Agreement authorizes class arbitration, and therefore exceeded her authority, and that vacating the partial final award was necessary to remedy the arbitrator's errors. Busick, on the other hand, argued that the petition should be dismissed, claiming the partial final award was not subject to immediate judicial review because it was not an "award" within the meaning of section 1283.4.

The superior court agreed with Busick, concluded it lacked jurisdiction to rule on Instacart's petition, and issued an order entitled, "Order Denying Petitioner [Instacart's] Petition to Vacate Partial Final Arbitration Award." Instacart appeals, arguing that the trial court should have ruled on the merits of its petition, and asking us to remand to the trial court with instructions to do so.

DISCUSSION

We must first determine whether we have jurisdiction to hear this appeal. Busick urges us to dismiss the appeal, arguing that the challenged order is, just as it is labeled, an order "denying" a petition to vacate, which is not an appealable order under section 1294.6 Instacart argues that the superior court order is for all intents and purposes an order dismissing the petition, making it appealable under section 1294, subdivision (b), which states, "An aggrieved party may appeal from ... [a]n order dismissing a petition to ... vacate an award." As we explain, we agree with Instacart that the order is appealable.

We then consider whether the superior court erred in dismissing Instacart's petition. Busick argues that, even if the superior court's order is appealable, the court correctly determined that it had no jurisdiction to reach the merits of Instacart's petition because the arbitrator's partial final award is not an "award" under section 1283.4, and therefore cannot be the subject of a petition to vacate under section 1285.

Because this case presents questions of law applied to undisputed facts, our review is de novo. ( Ghirardo v. Antonioli (1994) 8 Cal.4th 791, 799, 35 Cal.Rptr.2d 418, 883 P.2d 960.)

A. Applicable Law

We begin by summarizing the provisions of the CAA that authorize parties to enlist the superior court in enforcing an arbitration award. An award "shall be in writing and signed by the arbitrators concurring therein" and "shall include a determination *101of all the questions submitted to the arbitrators the decision of which is necessary in order to determine the controversy." (§ 1283.4.) Any party to an arbitration where an award has been made may petition the superior court to "confirm, correct or vacate the award." (§ 1285.) The responding party may then "request the court to dismiss the petition or to confirm, correct or vacate the award." (§ 1285.2.) The trial court confirms the award as made, "unless in accordance with this chapter it corrects the award and confirms it as corrected, vacates the award or dismisses the proceeding."7 (§ 1286.) The outcome will be an order dismissing the petition (§ 1287.2), an order vacating the award (§§ 1286.2, 1286.4), or, if the court confirms or corrects the award, a judgment. (§§ 1286.6, 1286.8, 1287.4.) Each of these outcomes can be appealed. (§ 1294, subds. (b) through (d).)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
237 Cal. Rptr. 3d 98, 26 Cal. App. 5th 394, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maplebear-inc-v-busick-calctapp5d-2018.