Hoot Winc, LLC v. NLRB

Case Updates

The U.S. Chamber filed an amicus brief urging the Ninth Circuit to grant a petition for review and deny enforcement of a National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) decision adopting the D.R. Horton rule, frustrating the will of Congress and eliminating the benefits of arbitration. The Chamber’s brief argues that the D.R. Horton rule is precluded by the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) and has been rejected by three federal courts of appeal and the California Supreme Court. The brief explains that the Supreme Court has held that agreements that require the parties to arbitrate disputes on an individual basis are enforceable under the FAA, and neither of the exceptions to the FAA’s mandate applies here. The brief concludes by explaining that rejecting the D.R. Horton rule will benefit employees who have individualized claims that are not amenable to being brought on a class or collective basis and who benefit from the informality of arbitration, and will also reduce the number of employment disputes that are routinely and effectively arbitrated and diverted to an already clogged court system.

This case is part of a series of cases in which parties, including the NLRB as a party or amicus, continue to press the NLRB’s position, first announced in the D.R. Horton matter and rejected by virtually every court to consider it, that agreements between employers and employees to arbitrate disputes on an individual basis violate the National Labor Relations Act.

Andrew J. Pincus, Evan M. Tager, Archis A. Parasharami and Matthew A. Waring of Mayer Brown LLP served as counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center.