Federico v. Frick
| Decision Date | 26 January 1970 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | , 73 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2810 Armando FEDERICO, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Jerome H. FRICK, Defendant and Appellant. Civ. 34084. |
James A. McLaughlin, Jr., Los Angeles, for respondent.
Jerome H. Frick appeals from a judgment for $12,627.00 confirming an arbitration award against him. The appeal lies. (Code Civ.Proc. § 1294(d).) The basis of the appeal, broadly stated, is that there was no agreement to arbitrate and the arbitration was not an impartial one. We find no merit in the appeal.
On August 23, 1967, Armando Federico was hired for a period of one year as a pianist at the Mikado, a restaurant and cocktail lounge owned and operated by Frick. This employment was made under a standard printed contract of Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians. Federico was a member of the local.
The employment contract contained a Paragraph 11, reading in relevant part as follows: '* * * All controversies involving matters within the competence of Locals of the Federation arising out of this contract, (sic) shall be submitted to, heard, arbitrated and determined by the person, persons or body specified by the rules, Bylaws or practices of the Local in whose jurisdiction the services have been or are to be performed in accordance with the Some weeks later Frick discharged Federico for conduct on the job allegedly offensive to certain female customers. On November 22, 1967, Federico filed a formal claim with the local for the balance of his year's salary. Arbitration hearings were thereafter held by a five member trial board of the local which made the arbitration award at issue 2 on January 17, 1968. Upon Frick's failure to pay the award, Federico commenced in timely fashion the confirmation proceedings which are now before us. (Code Civ.Proc. § 1288.)
procedures in such rules or By-laws. * * *' Furthermore, Paragraph 10 of this contract provided that such rules and bylaws, among other things, were incorporated into the contract and 'the employer acknowledges his responsibility to be fully acquainted, now and for the duration of this contract, with the contents thereof. 1 '
The record on appeal contains nothing with respect to the factual basis for the award. We, therefore, know nothing of its merit.
Frick's position is that we should reverse the judgment confirming the arbitration award against him because: (1) he was unaware of the existence of the arbitration provisions in the contract as he failed to read that portion of the contract prior to signing it; (2) he never knew until he received the award that the proceedings before the trial board were arbitration proceedings; (3) the contract was one of adhesion and, therefore, against public policy; and (4) the arbitration procedure provided by the contract was not an impartial one since the arbitration board was composed of Federico's fellow members of Local 47 which would also receive a portion of the award.
Code of Civil Procedure section 1281 of the California Arbitration Act provides in relevant part that, '* * * A written agreement to submit to arbitration * * * a controversy thereafter arising is valid, enforceable and irrevocable save upon such grounds as exist for the revocation of any contract.' Frick asserts Paragraph 11 of the employment contract, which we have quoted in relevant part, is not a valid and enforceable arbitration agreement because he signed the contract without reading this provision and therefore was unaware of its existence, and because the contract itself is one of adhesion. In determining the validity of this position, we are first faced with the trier of fact's specific finding that all of the affirmative allegations of Frick's response to the petition to confirm the award were untrue. These included the allegations of his verified declaration since these were incorporated in his response. These findings are, however, without any, evidentiary support. Therefore we will disregard them.
But, doing this does not make Frick's position a tenable one. Failure to read an entire contract is not a basis for its revocation. (See California State Automobile Ass'n Inter-Ins. Bureau v. Barrett Garages, Inc., 257 Cal.App.2d 71, 76, 64 Cal.Rptr. 699.) Similarly, ignorance of the arbitral nature of the proceedings is not one of the statutory grounds for vacation of an arbitration award. 3 (See Code Civ.Proc. § 1287.2; cf. Sanserino v. Shamberger, 245 Cal.App.2d 630, 634--636, 54 Cal.Rptr. 206.)
The standard union employment contract before us may well be a contract of adhesion (see Gray v. Zurich Insurance Co., 65 Cal.2d 263, 269--271, 54 Cal.Rptr 104, 419 P.2d 168), but there is nothing in the record providing evidentiary support for this conclusion. Furthermore, in this state arbitration is entirely...
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Graham v. Scissor-Tail, SCISSOR-TAIL
...that if a party does not protest such a contract in advance of arbitration, the courts will not interfere. (Federico v. Frick (1970) 3 Cal.App.3d 872, 84 Cal.Rptr. 74.) But where, as here, a party asserts the agreement was involuntary and protests in advance the fairness and impartiality of......
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Graham v. Scissor-Tail, Inc.
...powers and duties of a neutral arbitrator may be exercised by a majority of the arbitrators." (Italics added.) In Federico v. Frick (1970) 3 Cal.App.3d 872, 84 Cal.Rptr. 74, a case factually similar to that here before us, it was held that these provisions "expressly permit( ) the parties t......
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Sanchez v. Valencia Holding Co.
...adhesiveness. (Izzi v. Mesquite Country Club (1986) 186 Cal.App.3d 1309, 1318, 231 Cal.Rptr. 315 (Izzi ); see Federico v. Frick (1970) 3 Cal.App.3d 872, 875, 84 Cal.Rptr. 74 [“nothing in the record provid[es] evidentiary support for th[e] conclusion” that “[t]he standard union employment co......
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Fosler v. Midwest Care Ctr. Ii Inc
...of the statute to be “quite clear” in that, “[w]hile the strong public policy of the state favors arbitration (Federico v. Frick, 3 Cal.App.3d 872, 875, 84 Cal.Rptr. 74 (1970)), the intent of the statute is to provide in the first instance a judicial forum where there exists a dispute as to......