Lowe’s Worker Can Pursue Case While Others Arbitrate, Court Says

A former Lowe’s Home Centers LLC worker’s wage-and-hour suit was improperly paused while the company arbitrated other worker’s cases, a California state appeals court ruled.

The home improvement chain secured a stay of ex-worker Ann Leenay’s Private Attorneys General Act suit against it as Lowe’s arbitrated cases in which other workers made similar claims. But California’s civil procedure rules don’t authorize judges to stay a plaintiff’s case on the basis of pending arbitrations to which they aren’t a party, the California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, said.

Leenay filed a PAGA complaint in 2019 alleging Lowe’s miscalculated employees’ premium ...