McGhee v. North American Bancard, LLC
Filing
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ORDER granting 36 Defendant's Motion to Stay. Case stayed while the parties appeal to the Ninth Circuit is appropriate. The parties are ordered to file a short status report every 90 days on the status of the case and the appeal. Signed by Judge Anthony J. Battaglia on 2/6/2018. (acc)
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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Gerald McGhee,
Case No.: 17-cv-0586-AJB-KSC
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ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S
MOTION TO STAY (Doc. No. 36)
Plaintiff,
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v.
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North American Bancard, LLC,
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Defendant.
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After the Court denied defendant North American Bancard’s motion to compel
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mandatory arbitration, NAB appealed. (Doc. Nos. 28, 36.) NAB then filed this motion to
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stay proceedings pending the Ninth Circuit’s ruling on that order. Because NAB would
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irreparably lose the benefit of arbitration if forced to proceed with the case during appeal,
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the Court GRANTS NAB’s motion.
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I.
LEGAL STANDARDS
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Courts have discretion in deciding whether a stay pending appeal should be granted.
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Britton v. Co-op Banking Grp., 916 F.2d 1405, 1412 (9th Cir. 1990). Under Rule 62(c), a
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Court must consider whether (1) there is a likelihood of success on the merits, (2)
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irreparable injury to the moving party, (3) substantial injury to the non-moving party, and
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(4) public interest. Golden Gate Rest. Ass’n v. City & Cnty. of S.F., 512 F.3d 1112, 1115
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(9th Cir. 2008). The first two factors are the most critical. Nken v. Holder, 556 U.S. 418,
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434 (2009). “In light of Nken, the Ninth Circuit clarified its treatment of the first two
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factors, holding that the movant’s ‘burden with regard to irreparable harm is higher than it
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is on the likelihood of success prong, as she must show that an irreparable injury is the
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more probable or likely outcome.’” Cesca Therapeutics Inc. v. SynGen Inc., No. 2:14-cv-
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2085-TLN-KJN, 2017 WL 1174062, at *2 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 30, 2017) (citing Leiva-Perez
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v. Holder, 640 F.3d 962, 968 (9th Cir. 2011)). A party satisfying this lower threshold under
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the first Nken factor “is not required to show that it is more likely than not to win on the
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merits, but must then demonstrate that the balance of hardships under the second and third
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factors tilts sharply in its favor.” Morse v Servicemaster Global Holdings, Inc., No. 10-
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CV-0628-SI, 2013 WL 123610, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 8, 2013) (internal citations and
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modifications omitted). A movant may show a substantial legal question exists instead of
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arguing a possibility of success on the merits so long as “the final three factors strongly
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weigh in favor of granting a stay.” Eberle v. Smith, No. 07-CV-0120 W(WMC), 2008 WL
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238450, at * 2 (S.D. Cal. Jan. 29, 2008).
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II.
DISCUSSION
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NAB argues (1) its appeal presents serious legal questions, (2) it is likely to win on
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the merits, (3) public interest favors staying proceedings, and (4) NAB will suffer
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irreparable harm should the Court deny the stay.
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A. Substantial Legal Question
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NAB argues courts have held a party need now show probability of success on
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appeal, but that a serious legal question exists. (Doc. No. 36-1 at 6.) To that point, NAB
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states the Court’s July 21 2017 Order denying compelled arbitration deals with
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“fundamental issues regarding the evolving law of the enforceability of electronic
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agreements . . . .” (Doc. No. 36-1 at 6.) What is considered a serious legal question is
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unclear. However, issues of first impression are considered serious legal questions within
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the Ninth Circuit. Mohamed v. Uber Techs., et al, 115 F. Supp. 3d 1024, 1029 (N.D. Cal.
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2015) (“[f]or a legal question to be ‘serious,’ it must be a ‘question going to the merits so
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serious, substantial, difficult and doubtful, as to make the issues ripe for litigation and
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deserving of more deliberate investigation.’” (quoting Walmer v. United States DOD, 52
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F.3d 851, 854 (10th Cir. 1995))).
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NAB argues the Ninth Circuit has not resolved the issue of whether users can be
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compelled into arbitration agreements by clicking an “I accept” button on a website. NAB
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cites to a Second Circuit opinion which recently held “such agreements are enforceable . .
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. .” (Doc. No. 36-1 at 7.) NAB, therefore, asserts this is an important and novel area of law
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and “that the Ninth Circuit be allowed to consider this critical issue before NAB is required
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to litigate in this District Court.” (Id.)
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In response, McGhee negates NAB’s characterization of the law and the facts.
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McGhee points to the Court’s prior order stating Ninth Circuit authority acknowledges
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NAB’s two-step process could fall within the parameters of a modified clickwrap
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agreement. (Doc. Nos. 28 at 4; 39 at 5.) The Court’s prior order found there was no assent
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to the terms containing the arbitration clause, finding “[i]t stretches credulity to assert that
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the actual page that is linked to the application McGhee filled out does not govern that
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application, but rather another page linked to the page that is linked to the application
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does.” (Doc. No. 28 at 7.) But the Court’s holding turned on the fact that although the
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service agreement McGhee agreed to was labeled “MERCHANT SERVICE
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AGREEMENT,” and McGhee was not a potential merchant, he was still bound to those
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terms and conditions—as opposed to the terms containing the arbitration agreement, which
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was located on another hyperlinked page. (Id. 5–8.) Whether McGhee’s manifestation of
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assent based on the conspicuousness of NAB’s distinction between the agreement intended
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for McGhee over the agreement labeled for merchants is indeed an issue of first impression.
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Accordingly, this factor weighs in favor of granting a stay. Because NAB argues that a
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serious legal question exists, the next three factors must weigh sharply in NAB’s favor—
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and the Court finds they do.
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B. Defendant’s Harm
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As to the balance of hardships, NAB argues the balance tips in their favor because
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“permitting these proceedings to continue while NAB’s appeal is pending would deprive
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NAB – perhaps permanently – of the efficient streamlined procedures the parties agreed to
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when Plaintiff registered to use NAB’s PayAnywhere Service.” (Doc. No. 36-1 at 8.)
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Additionally, NAB argues, McGhee will likely seek class certification, which the
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arbitration provision waives, forcing more costly appeals. (Id.) McGhee criticizes NAB’s
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use of financial hardships, yet there is ample case law supporting NAB’s position. Alascom,
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Inc. v. ITT North Elec. Co., 727 F.2d 1419, 1422 (9th Cir. 1984) (“[W]here an order grants
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a stay of arbitration, one party is deprived of the inexpensive and expeditious means by
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which the parties had agreed to resolve their disputes. If that party must undergo the
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expense and delay of a trial before being able to appeal, the advantages of arbitration—
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speed and economy—are lost forever. We find this consequence serious, perhaps,
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irreparable.”). Although NAB will have to incur some litigation costs eventually, NAB will
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lose the benefit of its arbitration agreement. Thus, this factor weighs in favor of a stay.
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C. Plaintiff’s Harm
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NAB argues McGhee would not be harmed by a stay because his “right to litigate
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the issues in his complaint will not disappear pending the stay.” (Doc. No. 36-1 at 27.)
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McGhee counters that his age and the risk of losing evidence impose an undue hardship.
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At “90 years old and in fragile health,” McGhee states a stay could permanently deprive
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him of justice in this matter. NAB retorts that McGhee’s speculation that evidence may be
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lost is vague and should be disregarded. The Court agrees. Without proof that there is some
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evidence actually at risk of spoliation, the guess that some evidence may be lost at some
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point down the line fails to tip the scale. Regarding McGhee’s age and health concerns,
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McGhee did not cite any case law supporting his position that health and age are relevant
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to the matter. A district court in Nevada found that plaintiff’s age (87) did not outweigh
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prejudice to defendants of engaging in duplicative discovery. Shehan v. DePuy
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Orthopaedics, Inc., No. 2:12-cv-01170-MMD-CWH, 2012 WL 3536690, at *3 (D. Nev.
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Aug. 14, 2012). While the Court sympathizes with McGhee’s concerns about his age and
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his health, it does not balance the hardship NAB would have if the stay were denied and
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NAB would have to litigate a class action lawsuit to trial possibly before the Ninth Circuit
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ruled arbitration was necessary. Such a decision would be extremely burdensome on NAB,
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and could lead to inconsistent judgments, which would take more years and resources to
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sort out. The Court finds this factor also weighs in favor of a stay.
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D. Public Interest
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NAB states that because the FAA requires courts to favor arbitration, the public’s interest
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in judicial economy tips in favor of a stay. (Doc. No. 36-1 at 27.) McGhee replies that a
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stay “‘will allow any harm to the putative class members to continue, and therefore may
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materially affect the public interest in vindicating the rights of consumers.’” (Doc. No. 39
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at 9, quoting Bradberry v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., No. C 06-6567 CW, 2007 WL 2221076, at
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*5 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 2, 2007).) However, courts have rejected this very reasoning as being
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circular in logic by presuming the rightfulness of its position. See Ward v. Estate of
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Goossen, Case No. 14–cv–03510–THE, 2014 WL 7273911, at *5 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 22,
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2014). Here, the public has a greater interest in the benefit of saving judicial resources
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through arbitration than the possibility of future consumers being allegedly affected. Id.
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(“the Court finds that ‘[t]he policy underlying the FAA is to promote judicial efficiency
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and economy. Thus, contrary to public policy, judicial resources will be wasted if this case
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proceeds all the way to trial, only for the Court to later discover that the case should have
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proceeded through arbitration.’” (quoting Zaborowski v. MHN Gov. Services, Inc., No. C
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12–05109 SI, 2013 WL 1832638, at *3 (N.D. Cal. May 1, 2013))). Thus, the Court finds
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this factor also weighs in favor of a stay.
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III.
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CONCLUSION
The Court concludes that a stay of proceedings while the parties appeal to the
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Ninth Circuit is appropriate. The parties are ordered to file a short status report every 90
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days on the status of the case and the appeal.
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
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Dated: February 6, 2018
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