Hodges v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC

Background

Brandon Hodges brought this action for himself and others similarly situated against Comcast Cable Communications, LLC and Does 1–50. The opinion states that the court had previously denied Comcast’s motion to compel individual arbitration. Comcast filed a notice of appeal from that order on July 26, 2019, and filed a motion to stay the case pending appeal on July 31, 2019. The stay motion was set for hearing on September 26, 2019.

Comcast contended that the case should be stayed because, among other things, the appeal raised serious legal questions about whether the Federal Arbitration Act preempts the rule announced by the California Supreme Court in McGill v. Citibank, N.A. Comcast had also filed a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc in the Ninth Circuit in a related proceeding, Tillage v. Comcast Corp., concerning whether the Federal Arbitration Act preempts the McGill rule.

Order

The parties stipulated that the September 26 hearing on Comcast’s motion to stay pending appeal would be taken off calendar and reset after Comcast’s petition for rehearing in the related Ninth Circuit proceeding was resolved. The court ordered the parties to submit a joint report of no more than two pages after that resolution. If the petition was not resolved within 90 days of the order, the parties were directed to submit a joint report on the status of the petition and Comcast’s appeal.

Effect of the Order

Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. approved the stipulation and entered the order. This order addressed the timing of the stay-motion hearing and required status reports; it did not decide whether to grant or deny the stay motion, the appeal, or the arbitration dispute.