Magno v. The College Network, Inc., No. D068687 (D4d1 July 8, 2016)
The trial court in this case brought by nursing students against a for-profit college found an arbitration clause to be unconscionable. The Court of Appeal affirms. The evidence surrounding the signing of the contract supported some procedural unconscionability. The contract was adhesive and boilerplate, the plaintiffs young and impressionable, and the signing process hurried. And it was substantively unconscionable because its forum selection clause required Plaintiffs—nursing students in San Diego—to go to Indiana to arbitrate their claims. Moreover, the school got the first pick of the arbitrator and it shortened the statute of limitations. All told, the trial court did not err in finding the contract to be unconscionable. Nor—given the multiple unconscionable provisions—did the trial court err in declining to sever them.
Affirmed.
The trial court in this case brought by nursing students against a for-profit college found an arbitration clause to be unconscionable. The Court of Appeal affirms. The evidence surrounding the signing of the contract supported some procedural unconscionability. The contract was adhesive and boilerplate, the plaintiffs young and impressionable, and the signing process hurried. And it was substantively unconscionable because its forum selection clause required Plaintiffs—nursing students in San Diego—to go to Indiana to arbitrate their claims. Moreover, the school got the first pick of the arbitrator and it shortened the statute of limitations. All told, the trial court did not err in finding the contract to be unconscionable. Nor—given the multiple unconscionable provisions—did the trial court err in declining to sever them.
Affirmed.