Plaintiff Quinton McDonald (McDonald), a former employee of defendant Sierra Pacific Industries (Sierra Pacific), brought a class action for wage and hour violations against Sierra Pacific in October 2018.  Sierra Pacific defended the action in the trial court for years, remaining silent on the subject of arbitration and refusing to produce arbitration agreements signed by putative class members, despite being ordered to do so. 

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Eight plaintiff classes were certified in November 2022.  In the months that followed, Sierra Pacific produced more than 3,000 signed arbitration agreements.  Sierra Pacific then immediately moved to compel arbitration.  McDonald, now joined by plaintiffs Gary W. Dunehew and Robert L. Sherrill (collectively, plaintiffs) opposed the motion and moved for evidentiary and issue sanctions for failure to timely produce the arbitration agreements.  The trial court denied Sierra Pacific’s motion to compel arbitration based on waiver, and granted plaintiffs’ motion for evidentiary and issue sanctions, precluding Sierra Pacific from presenting evidence of the arbitration agreements or arguing that class members had signed such agreements.  Sierra Pacific appeals. 

We will affirm the order denying the motion to compel arbitration and dismiss the appeal from the order granting the motion for evidentiary and issue sanctions.     

https://www4.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/C099436.PDF