Palacios v. Nowhere Santa Monica CA2/1

Filed 4/21/22 Palacios v. Nowhere Santa Monica CA2/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

CARIN PALACIOS, B309207

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. 20STCV11880) v.

NOWHERE SANTA MONICA, LLC et al.,

Defendants and Appellants.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Rafael A. Ongkeko, Judge. Affirmed. De Castro Law Group, José-Manuel A. de Castro and Lori V. Minassian for Defendants and Appellants. Pairavi Law, Edwin Pairavi and Joshua M. Mohrsaz for Plaintiff and Respondent. ________________________

The plaintiff in this sexual harassment case (Carin Palacios) speaks no English, only Spanish. In 2018, when she was hired by appellant Nowhere Santa Monica, LLC, doing business as Erewhon Market (Erewhon), she was asked to sign a document that included an arbitration agreement but she was shown only an English version of the agreement and had no opportunity to review it in Spanish. When Palacios sued Erewhon (and its payroll provider appellant Modern HR, Inc., which is included in our references to Erewhon), Erewhon moved to compel arbitration. In opposition, Palacios and her attorney submitted declarations establishing that no Spanish language forms had ever been shown to Palacios, and that the only document produced by Erewhon during discovery was in English. The motion to compel arbitration was denied, and Erewhon appeals from that order. We affirm.

FACTS

Palacios went to work for Erewhon in 2018. About two or three weeks after she started, her supervisor told her she had to sign some documents in order to receive her paycheck. Palacios was taken to a computer, and her supervisor told her to type certain information into the computer (her name, date of birth, and social security number) at places indicated by the supervisor. The document was in English and no one explained its content to Palacios.