Judge hears arguments against Seaview
A woman who worked at a local Brius- owned skilled nursing facility wants to pursue a case against a doctor there who allegedly sexually assaulted her, but she signed an employment agreement that included an arbitration clause giving up her right to go to court.
Attorney Rich Dalrymple, representing the employee Charity Adams, said in Humboldt County Superior Court civil proceeding on Friday that the case against Seaview Rehabilitation & Wellness Center and Robert Alan Mott, who was a doctor at the Eureka facility for years before his license was suspended in 2019, needs to be heard in civil court rather than by an arbiter outside of the court system. Judge Timothy Canning said he would take the matter into submission and issue a written decision within 90 days about whether the case, in whole or in part, can proceed in civil court.
One of the reason’s the arbitration clause shouldn’t be binding is that Seaview committed fraud by failing to inform Adams that Mott was “a sexual predator” before she signed the employment contract, Dalrymple said.
“He had a chaperone with him at the facility for
numerous years before Ms. Adams was hired,” Dalrymple said. “The chaperone was a condition of his employment and it was a condition of his probation, having his license suspended twice, one of which of the suspensions was because of his assault on a female employee.”
Mott was displaying sexually predatory behavior dating back to 2004, Dalrymple said, and the medical director of Seaview submitted a letter to the Medical Board of California after Adams and another female employee were allegedly assaulted by Mott stating those were two of six incidents of sexual assault Mott committed in a medical setting dating back to 2006.
The Medical Board of California took three disciplinary actions against Mott between Dec. 12, 2005, and Dec. 26, 2019, for a variety of behaviors including a conviction for misdemeanor battery that was reduced from sexual battery, sexually harassing female employees, driving under the influence of alcohol and gross negligence in providing medical care. He was placed on probation for five years after the first action in 2005, which was the result of gross negligence and driving under the influence of alcohol.
It’s an employer’s duty to make sure there’s a safe working environment for all their employees and “Dr. Mott was an unsafe, dangerous condition” that Seaview had an obligation to disclose before having a potential employee sign a contract, Dalrymple said.
April Perkins, who was representing Seaview, said none of that was relevant, particularly because Mott wasn’t on probation during the time he “allegedly assaulted Ms. Adams.”
“There is no independent duty for employers to inform employees of the criminal history of anyone who might be at their facility while they’re working before they have them sign an arbitration agreement,” Perkins said. “That just doesn’t exist. There is no duty for an employer to go, ‘ Here are all the possible bad things that could happen to you while you work for us and also here’s an arbitration agreement, would you sign it.’”
After the #MeToo movement in 2017 exposed widespread sexual harassment and assault in various industries, states such as New York and California passed legislation hindering the ability of employers to use arbitration agreements to handle cases of sexual assault for the former and any employment- related dispute for the latter, according to “State Legislation Precluding Compelled Arbitration in Sexual Harassment Claims and the ( Federal Arbitration Act)” published in the American Bar Association’s Business Law Today March 2020 publication.
However, courts have prevented states from enforcing those laws because they were preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act, which binds both parties to the arbitration agreement with very limited exceptions and prevents states from passing laws that are discriminatory to the act, according to the March 2020 article.
For years, members of Congress have introduced legislation that would address arbitration agreements, some dealing specifically with sexual harassment, but none were ever passed.