Judge: Michael Small, Case: 23STCV26882, Date: 2024-06-18 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCV26882    Hearing Date: June 18, 2024    Dept: 57

The Court has not yet reached a decision, tentative or final, on whether to grant Defendants' motion to compel arbitration.

At this time, though, the Court is persuaded that the supplemental declaration of Laurie Lambert-Gaffney submitted with Defendants' reply brief in support of the Defendants' motion to compel arbitration authenticates Plaintiff's signature on Exhibits 2 and 3  to Lambert-Gaffney's initial declaration.  (See Espejo v. Southern California Permanente Medical Group (2016) 246 Cal.App.4th 1047, 1062.)  This overcomes Plaintiff's contention that he does not recall signing Exhibits 2 or 3.

The Court will, however, inquire of Defendants' counsel at the hearing on the motion as to (A) which of those two Exhibits (numbers 2 or 3) Defendants' contend embodies the actual arbitration between Plaintiff and Defendant Cheesecake Factory, and (B) what is the "mutual agreement to arbitrate claims" referenced in the last sentence of Exhibit 3 -- is that some other document, or is it simply Exhibit 3 itself?