Truck Stop Chain Wins New Look at Worker Arbitration on Appeal

Travel Centers of America won a new shot at arbitrating a former mechanic’s wage claims after the Ninth Circuit ruled that an arbitrator, not a district judge, should determine whether the arbitration agreement’s delegation clause is enforceable.

The lower court ruled that the truck stop chain, sued under its corporate identity, TA Operating LLC, couldn’t make the worker arbitrate his claims because a jury waiver made the delegation clause and the agreement as a whole unconscionable.

But the waiver has effect only if the agreement is otherwise unenforceable, so it can’t be the catalyst for the district judge’s conclusion, the ...