Reese v. Enjoy Technology CA1/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 18, 2022
DocketA161662
StatusUnpublished

This text of Reese v. Enjoy Technology CA1/2 (Reese v. Enjoy Technology CA1/2) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reese v. Enjoy Technology CA1/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

Filed 5/18/22 Reese v. Enjoy Technology CA1/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

CHRISTOPHER REESE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A161662 v. ENJOY TECHNOLOGY, INC (Alameda County et al., Super. Ct. No. HG20065994) Defendants and Appellants.

Defendants Enjoy Technology, Inc. (Enjoy), Christopher Harris, and Jasmin Staubli appeal from an order that denied their motion to compel Christopher Reese to arbitrate his claims against them. We affirm. BACKGROUND The Parties and the General Setting Enjoy is a technology company that uses its technology to offer direct delivery and setup of cellular phones and peripherals to customers. Some of Enjoy’s employees, called “experts,” deliver the phones to the customer’s home, office, or other location and assist the customer with the setup process and related activities. In November 2018, respondent Christopher Reese went to work at Enjoy as an expert. Prior to that employment, Reese was presented with an email referring to a series of documents to sign prior to being hired, the

1 details of which are critical to the issue here, and will be described below. Reese’s employment at Enjoy ended approximately a year after it began, in November 2019, when Reese resigned, later claiming to have been constructively discharged. The Proceedings Below On June 26, 2020, Reese filed a complaint naming three defendants: Enjoy, Christopher Harris, and Jasmin Staubli, the individuals alleged to be Reese’s supervisors, with Harris his direct supervisor. The complaint alleged various claims based on the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), including racial discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and failure to prevent; it also alleged common-law claims, violations of the Labor Code, and emotional distress. The essence of Reese’s claims was that he, an African-American male, was disproportionately assigned to deliveries in high crime, low-income areas like Oakland and Vallejo rather than in safer, primarily Caucasian, higher income areas like Walnut Creek and Marin County. Reese alleged when he raised other safety concerns, such as with the storage of items to be delivered in his delivery vehicle, the concerns were disregarded; and when he raised these concerns with human resources, he received no response. Reese resigned, effective November 5, 2019, claiming to be constructively discharged. On August 4, Enjoy, Harris, and Staubli (collectively defendants) filed a motion to compel arbitration, based on Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.2. The motion argued all Reese’s claims were governed by an arbitration provision in what defendants described as an “Employment and Arbitration Agreement” he had signed.

2 Enjoy’s moving papers included the notice of motion, a short memorandum of points and authorities, and the declaration of Clare McKay, Enjoy’s senior legal counsel. McKay’s declaration was a short, six- paragraphs, comprising all of 29-lines, only seven lines of which had anything to do with Reese’s pre-employment communications with Enjoy. These are the seven lines: “Plaintiff Christopher Reese was hired by Enjoy in November 2018. On November 4, 2018, he was provided with a copy of Enjoy’s At-Will Employment, Confidential Information, Invention Assignment, and Arbitration Agreement (hereinafter ‘Arbitration Agreement’). He was given time to review the materials and ask any questions he may have regarding it. After reviewing the Employment Agreement, Mr. Reese signed and returned the document. [¶] Attached hereto as Exhibit 1 is a true and correct copy of the Arbitration Agreement signed by Mr. Reese on November 5, 2018.” McKay’s declaration provided no details whatsoever as to how Reese was “provided” the “Arbitration Agreement”—indeed, what in fact he was “provided.” This, it would develop, would be shown only in Reese’s declaration in opposition to defendants’ motion, and to a lesser extent from a declaration submitted by defendants in its reply to that opposition. And what it showed was that late on the evening of November 4— 7:44:46 p.m. to be exact—Fatima Franco, the People Success Coordinator at Enjoy, sent Reese an email that provided in relevant part as follows: “Hi Christopher! “Congratulations and welcome to the Enjoy family. We are super excited to have you join us on November 26th!

3 “You will receive an email shortly from BambooHR, our HR portal. You’ll see a few things in this email from BambooHR that you’ll need to complete. Please complete these within the next 24 hours. “1. Complete & verify your personal information: “This can be found under the ‘Personal’ tab you can find at the top of the page. Please fill in your personal information, including Social Security Number, Date of Birth, Emergency Contact, mailing address and Driver’s license information (located under the ‘Personal’ tab) and Uniform Size (located under the ‘Assets’ tab). If you provided this information to your recruiter upon hire, please verify that your information is correct-please see below on where to find that information. “*You must complete this on a desktop to see all fields. “2. Complete the documents found in BambooHR: “1. PIIA “2. Photo Release “3. AT&T Release Form “4. I-9 Form (the remaining text boxes to be completed by HR when you start) “5. Company Vehicle Operating & Usage Policy “6. Sexual Harassment Policy “7. Acceptable Use Policy “8. Background-DMV-Drug Screen (The background/drug screen will be initiated as soon as you enter your driver’s license information in BambooHR. Please see below on where to fill that out in BambooHR. . . .”

4 So, what Franco sent to Reese to complete were eight documents, containing untold pages, not one of which, it is clear, made any mention of “arbitration” or an “arbitration agreement.” On September 9, Reese filed his opposition to the motion, which included a memorandum of points and authorities and his declaration. The points and authorities argued that: (1) defendants had not met their burden of proving an agreement to arbitrate; and (2) the agreement was unenforceable because it was unconscionable. As to Reese’s declaration, he testified about “onboarding documents via email that “I was forced to complete.” And, Reese went on, “No one at Enjoy explained to me that one of those onboarding documents was an arbitration agreement and no one explained what an arbitration agreement was to me.” Later in his declaration Reese testified that, “[u]pon being given the onboarding documents, I was not told that I could ask any questions I had related to the documents. Additionally, I was never told to consult with an attorney prior to completing any of the onboarding documents. [¶] Around the time that I was offered the position at Enjoy, I attempted to negotiate my pay rate with an individual from human resources, but I was told this was not possible. At the time of being given the onboarding documents, I was never given an opportunity to negotiate the terms in the onboarding documents, and clearly, not any of the terms of the arbitration agreement. I was never told that I could negotiate the terms of my onboarding documents and based on my experience with attempting to negotiate the pay rate, I never believed that negotiating the terms of the onboarding documents was a possibility. I was never even told there was an arbitration agreement contained in the various onboarding documents. I do not recall signing any document that contained an arbitration provision. I was not aware that the

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Bluebook (online)
Reese v. Enjoy Technology CA1/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reese-v-enjoy-technology-ca12-calctapp-2022.