California Court of Appeal

In this case, plaintiff sued defendant for unfair competition and false advertising in offering a credit insurance plan she purchased to protect her credit card account. Defendant thereafter petitioned to compel plaintiff to arbitrate her claims according to the arbitration provision in her account agreement, and the trial court granted the petition on plaintiff’s claims for monetary damages and restitution, but denied the petition on the injunctive relief claim. Denial of the petition on the injunctive relief claim is reversed and remanded for the trial court to order all of plaintiff’s claims to arbitration, where: 1) under the Broughton-Cruz rule, arbitration provisions are unenforceable as against public policy if they require arbitration of UCL, FAL, or CLRA injunctive relief claims brought for the public’s benefit; but 2) the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts the Broughton-Cruz rule; and 2) the FAA preempts all state-law rules that prohibit arbitration of a particular type of claim because an outright ban interferes with the FAA’s objective of enforcing arbitration agreements according to their terms.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/18/2014
• Published 12/18/2014

Judges

• Aronson

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel