Takeaway: When having an employee sign an arbitration agreement, a company should obtain convincing proof of the authenticity of the signature. If the agreement is signed electronically from a work computer, the employee may claim it was signed by a company representative.
Starting in 2015, the plaintiff worked at a Chili's chain restaurant in Liverpool, N.Y. When she started, the restaurant was operated by Pepper Dining Inc., but shortly thereafter was purchased by Brinker International Payroll Company LP. Once Brinker took over, Chili's employees were required to sign new employment documents, including an arbitration agreement. In January 2019, the plaintiff's employment with Brinker ended.
The plaintiff sued Brinker, alleging that she and a class of similarly situated workers had experienced a variety of employment law violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state laws. Her lawsuit was joined by another plaintiff who began working at the same restaurant in 2017.
Brinker responded by moving to dismiss the lawsuit and compel arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act. Its evidence was a set of arbitration agreements and other related documents, each of which purportedly bore the plaintiff's electronic signature. The IP address of the electronic signatures traced back to a computer owned by Brinker, suggesting that the arbitration agreement and related documents were executed at the restaurant where the plaintiff worked.
Brinker also provided a declaration of...
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