Arbitration is not always faster and less expensive. Consider the following Kafkaesque nightmare of Yvonne Cardwell.
In February 2013 , dishwasher Yvonne Cardwell sued Whataburger Restaurants LLC in Texas state court alleging she suffered an on-the-job injury when a heavy object hit her in the head at work. Whataburger moved to compel arbitration.
The trial court judge denied Whataburger’s motion finding the agreement to arbitrate was illusory. The court of appeals reversed the trial court order and remanded the case with instructions to grant Whataburger’s motion to compel. The Texas Supreme Court accepted Cardwell’s argument that the court of appeals failed to address certain issues and remanded the case to the court of appeals for consideration of the omitted issues. The court of appeals remanded the case to the trial court to determine again whether the agreement to arbitrate was illusory.
Five years after the initial filing, the trial court again denied the motion to compel arbitration. Unfortunately the trial court clerk failed to give the parties notice of the order denying the motion. After discovery of the trial court’s order after the deadline for appeal, the trial court denied Whataburger’s motion for reconsideration. The court of appeals denied Whataburger’s request for mandamus.
In April 2022, nine years after the initial lawsuit, the Texas Supreme Court held Whataburger was not given an adequate chance to appeal due to the lack of notice, found that the contract was not illusory, and directed the trial court to promptly issue an order compelling arbitration of Cardwell’s claims.
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