MCLE SELF-STUDY: GALARSA V. DOLGEN NARROWS VIKING RIVER ON ARBITRABILITY OF PAGA CLAIMS

AUTHORS^*

Glenn A. Danas

Katelyn Leeviraphan

The California Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District, recently issued the first published opinion narrowing the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana from last term.¹ In Viking River, the Supreme Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) partially preempted the California Supreme Court’s Iskanian rule,² insofar as that rule precluded division of Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA)³ actions into "individual" and "non-individual" claims through an agreement to arbitrate.⁴ The Supreme Court reversed the California appellate court’s decision, holding that the employer was entitled to enforce the agreement, thereby requiring arbitration of an employee’s "individual" PAGA claim, staying the plaintiff’s PAGA claim based on CAL LAB. CODE violations committed against other aggrieved employees.⁵ Rather than stopping there and remanding for the lower court to determine the fate of the non-individual