Abel Lemuz Sanchez, a former employee of Evans Food Group, Ltd., has filed a lawsuit against the company in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, case ID 22STCV02207, on April 29, 2024. The lawsuit is centered around a wage-and-hour class and representative action after Sanchez resigned from his position at Evans in October 2021.
Sanchez alleges that he was forced to arbitrate his individual claims as per an agreement he supposedly signed electronically when reapplying for his position in November 2021. However, Sanchez asserts that he has no recollection of completing such an application and had already secured new employment earlier that month. The defendant's lawyers are Jack S. Sholkoff and Catherine L. Brackett from Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart while the plaintiff is represented by Samuel A. Wong, Jessica L. Campbell and Ali S. Carlsen from Aegis Law Firm.
The trial court denied Evans' petition as it failed to establish that the electronic signature was indeed Sanchez's act under the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA). Furthermore, the court found that Evans could not retroactively enforce an arbitration agreement signed after Sanchez's employment ended with no evidence of him being rehired.
Sanchez seeks judgment for his wage and hour complaint filed in January 2022 on behalf of himself and a putative class of Evans' current and former nonexempt employees who were paid on a commission or piece rate basis since July 25, 2017. He also added a claim for civil penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 ("PAGA") in July 2022.
Justices Egerton, Edmon and Lavin all concur that substantial evidence supports the lower courts factual findings and that it did not apply an erroneous legal standard. All lower court judgments against Evans Food Group's petition to compel arbitration are affirmed.