Rittmann et al v. Amazon.com Inc et al

Filing 98

MINUTE ORDER denying Plaintiffs' 94 Motion to Lift Stay authorized by U.S. District Judge John C Coughenour. (TH)

Download PDF
THE HONORABLE JOHN C. COUGHENOUR 1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 7 8 9 BERNADEAN RITTMANN, et al., 10 11 12 13 Plaintiffs, CASE NO. C16-1554-JCC MINUTE ORDER v. AMAZON.COM, INC., et al., Defendants 14 15 16 17 The following Minute Order is made by direction of the Court, the Honorable John C. Coughenour, United States District Judge: Plaintiffs ask the Court to lift the stay in this case in light of the Supreme Court’s recent 18 decision in Epic Sys. Corp. v. Lewis, No. 16-285, slip op. (U.S. May 21, 2018). (See Dkt. No. 94 19 at 2.) As a result of the holding in Epic, Plaintiffs concede, “the NLRA no longer provides a 20 basis for invalidating Amazon’s arbitration agreement, which contains a class action waiver.” 21 (Id.) Accordingly, Plaintiffs ask the Court to now consider its alternative argument that the 22 Federal Arbitration Act’s (“FAA”) transportation worker exemption applies. (Id.) (citing 9 23 U.S.C. § 1). This issue is currently under consideration by the Ninth Circuit in Van Dusen v. 24 Swift Transp. Co., No. 17-15102 (9th Cir. Jan. 20, 2017). As the Court previously indicated, this 25 Court will not consider Plaintiff’s argument until “the Ninth Circuit’s resolution of Swift,” which 26 MINUTE ORDER C16-1554-JCC PAGE - 1 1 has not yet occurred. 1 (Dkt. No. 77 at 6.) Accordingly, Plaintiffs’ motion to lift the stay (Dkt. No. 2 94) is DENIED. 3 DATED this 11th day of June 2018. 4 William M. McCool Clerk of Court 5 s/Tomas Hernandez Deputy Clerk 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 1 This decision has been stayed pending the Supreme Court’s decision in New Prime v. Oliveira, No. 17-340 (Feb. 26, 2018). Partly at issue in New Prime is whether independent contractors fall under the FAA’s transportation worker exemption. See Oliveira v. New Prime, Inc., 857 F.3d 7, 15 (1st Cir. 2017), cert. granted, 138 S. Ct. 1164 (2018). MINUTE ORDER C16-1554-JCC PAGE - 2

Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.


Why Is My Information Online?