Arocha v. Web To Door Corp.

Background

Web To Door Corp. filed a motion to compel individual arbitration, and the motion was fully briefed. The parties’ arguments indicated that deciding the motion would largely require determining whether the Federal Arbitration Act’s exception for certain transportation workers applies. Section 1 of the Act excludes from its coverage “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.”

The court discussed the Supreme Court’s framework in Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon for applying that exception. It also noted that the Supreme Court had vacated and remanded the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Carmona v. Domino’s Pizza, LLC, for further consideration in light of Saxon. The Ninth Circuit had relied in Carmona on an earlier case, Rittman v. Amazon.com, Inc. The court stated that the Ninth Circuit’s forthcoming decision in Carmona was likely to clarify how Rittman applies after Saxon.

Order

The court ordered the parties to show cause—meaning to explain—why the proceedings should not be stayed, or paused, pending resolution of Carmona. Each party was required to file a response within seven days of the order, limited to five pages. The parties could instead submit a joint statement agreeing to a stay, subject to the same deadline and page limit.

To allow time to consider the responses, the court vacated the June 13, 2023 hearing on Web To Door Corp.’s motion to compel individual arbitration and stated that the hearing would be reset if necessary. This order did not decide whether arbitration must be compelled.