Court of Appeal Saves Electronically Signed Arbitration Agreement - Relevant to Other Electronic Acknowledgements Too

Wait, don't skip this one yet. It's not just another arbitration case. If your business uses electronic acknowledgments of policies, handbooks or employment agreements (commissions, confidentiality agreements, etc.), it's worth a read.

In this case, Doctor Espejo sued Kaiser for wrongful termination. The facts aren't important.  At the beginning of employment, Kaiser sent the doctor an email containing electronic links to his offer letter, the dispute resolution procedures (arbitration agreement), "rules and regulations," and a benefits handbook. He accepted his offer and the other materials via an electronic signature that he applied after clicking the links, signing in and following procedures.

The issue that lawyers have to deal with, dear HR and company management, is how to prove that these things happened in litigation.  And that problem came up when Kaiser tried to compel Dr. Espejo to arbitrate.

The trial court rejected Kaiser's attempt to prove that Dr. Espejo signed his arbitration agreement. But the trial court did so because it refused to rely on a declaration that Kaiser submitted after Kaiser had filed its initial Petition to Compel Arbitration.  (Kaiser submitted the additional declaration in response to a new court decision that had come down, trying to satisfy its evidentiary burden.)  The Court of Appeal decided the trial court should have accepted Kaiser's declaration.

With that out of the way, the Court of Appeal made two significant rulings. One applies in the context of compelling arbitration. But one is more generally applicable to proving that electronically signed documents are "authentic" and admissible evidence.

First, the Court of Appeal decided that a party's initial burden on a Petition to Compel arbitration does not include fully "authenticating" an arbitration agreement, unless the other side disputes the agreement is authentic in its opposition.

we conclude that defendants here met their initial burden by attaching to their petition a copy of the purported arbitration agreement bearing Espejo’s electronic signature. Once Espejo challenged the validity of that signature in his opposition, defendants were then required to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the signature was authentic.

That's good news unless, as in this case, the employee is going to deny electronically signing the document.  Doctor Espejo recalled electronically signing his offer letter, but he did not remember authorizing his electronic signature on the other documents.  So, as it says above, Kaiser then had to prove authenticity by a preponderance of the evidence. This issue will arise a lot in other contexts, such as handbook receipts, commission plans, etc.  How does one prove to a court that an electronic acknowledgment is real?  Remember, that's the only reason employers have these sign-offs - in case of litigation.  So, it pays to have a way of proving they are valid.

The Court of Appeal reviewed the law in this area and approved the declaration that Kaiser submitted.  To prove an electronic signature is valid under Civil Code section 1633.9, subd. (a), it is necessary to prove it is the "act of the person" whom you want to establish signed the document.  The Court of Appeal reviewed Kaiser's declaration and decided it was sufficient to do so:

Tellez detailed SCPMG’s security precautions regarding transmission and use of an applicant’s unique user name and password, as well as the steps an applicant would have to take to place his or her name on the signature line of the employment agreement and the DRP. Based on this procedure, she concluded that the “name Jay Baniaga Espejo could have only been placed on the signature pages of the employment agreement and the DRP by someone using Dr. Espejo’s unique user name and password. . . . [¶] Given this process for signing documents and protecting the privacy of the information with unique and private user names and passwords, the electronic signature was made by Dr. Espejo” on the employment agreement and the DRP at the date, time, and IP address listed on the documents. These details satisfactorily meet the requirements articulated in Ruiz and establish that the electronic signature on the DRP was “the act of” Espejo (Civ. Code, § 1633.9, subd. (a)), and therefore provide the necessary factual details to properly authenticate the document.

So, to prove electronic signatures depict the acknowledgment of the person whom the company wants to say signed the document, the following is necessary:

- a company witness has to know how the electronic signature process works and has to be able to explain it in a declaration.  The vendor has to have a white paper explaining the process in plain English, and training for HR and IT;

- the electronic signature process has to have sufficient security safeguards to allow a court to find that it is more likely than not the signature of the person you want it to be.  It always helps to have an email confirmation of the signing event sent to the email user with a return receipt; and

- the lawyer has to know how to draft a proper declaration of a person who can lay foundation regarding knowledge of how the process works and how it was applied to the plaintiff.  (You're welcome).

This case is Espejo v. Southern California Permanente Medical Group and the opinion is here.

Court of Appeal Finds Insufficient Evidence Attributing Electronic Signature to Employee

Employers increasingly rely on electronic acknowledgements of policies and procedures.  An "electronic signature" is valid under California law.  But the reason those signatures exist is so that employers can prove the employee read and signed the document.  That's what Moss Bros. Auto found out in a recent case.

The document was an arbitration agreement, which Moss Bros. claimed that its employee, Ruiz, signed.  However, Ruiz claimed he did not "remember" signing it.  So, Moss Bros. had to establish that he did when it moved to compel Ruiz to arbitrate his wage-hour claims.

Moss Bros. adduced the declaration of its business manager, Mary K. Main, who was “required to be familiar with the generation and maintenance” of employee personnel records. Main summarily asserted that Ruiz “electronically signed” the 2011 agreement “on or about September 21, 2011,” and that the same agreement was presented to “all persons who seek or seek to maintain employment” with Moss Bros. or its affiliated dealerships and service/parts centers. Main did not explain how Moss Bros. verified that Ruiz, or other Moss Bros. employees, electronically signed the 2011 agreement. 

The 2011 agreement is just over two pages in length. “Ernesto Zamora Ruiz” appears in print on the first page, under the title, “Employee Acknowledgment and Agreement,” and the phrases “Ernesto Zamora Ruiz (Electronic Signature)” and “9/21/2011 11:47:27 AM” appear in print on the third page, under the signature and date lines of the 2011 agreement. 

In a supplemental declaration, Main testified that Ruiz had to log in using a unique user name and password. 

The court of appeal decided that was not enough because Main did not "authenticate" the electronic signature.  here is the standard for doing so:

Civil Code section 1633.9 addresses how a proponent of an electronic signature may authenticate the signature—that is, show the signature is, in fact, the signature of the person the proponent claims it is. The statute states: “(a) An electronic record or electronic signature is attributable to a person if it was the act of the person. The act of the person may be shown in any manner, including a showing of the efficacy of any security procedure applied to determine the person to which the electronic record or electronic signature was attributable.” (Civ. Code, § 1633.9, subd. (a), italics added.) 

Here, the court found that Main's testimony about the general procedures applicable to electronically signing the arbitration agreement was insufficient.  The court provided some hints as to what would have been enough:

Main did not explain that an electronic signature in the name of “Ernesto Zamora Ruiz” could only have been placed on the 2011 agreement (i.e., on the Employee Acknowledgement form) by a person using Ruiz’s “unique login ID and password”; that the date and time printed next to the electronic signature indicated the date and time the electronic signature was made; that all Moss Bros. employees were required to use their unique login ID and password when they logged into the HR system and signed electronic forms and agreements; and the electronic signature on the 2011 agreement was, therefore, apparently made by Ruiz on September 21, 2011, at 11:47 a.m. Rather than offer this or any other explanation of how she inferred the electronic signature on the 2011 agreement was the act of Ruiz, Main only offered her unsupported assertion that Ruiz was the person who electronically signed the 2011 agreement. In the face of Ruiz’s failure to recall electronically signing the 2011 agreement, the fact the 2011 agreement had an electronic signature on it in the name of Ruiz, and a date and time stamp for the signature, was insufficient to support a finding that the electronic signature was, in fact, “the act of” Ruiz. (Civ. Code, § 1633.9, subd. (a).) For the same reason, the evidence was insufficient to support a finding that the electronic signature was what Moss Bros. claimed it was: the electronic signature of Ruiz. (Evid. Code, § 1400, cl. (a).) This was not a difficult evidentiary burden to meet, but it was not met here. 

As a result, the court found there was insufficient evidence of an agreement to arbitrate and upheld the trial court's denial of Moss Bros.'s petition to compel arbitration.

Yes, it may be that Moss Bros. failed to compel Ruiz to arbitrate due to a poorly drafted declaration, rather than some flaw in the electronic signing protocol.  But litigators need proof that an employee signed handbook acknowledgements, training attendance forms, etc. Although an arbitration agreement was involved here, this decision applies to all sorts of electronically signed documents.  The average manager has no idea how the electronic signing process works, cannot testify that he or she actually saw the employee at the computer electronically signing, etc.

Therefore, when implementing electronic versions of documents, employers must have their IT professionals build in ways to do so.  For example, there could be an acknowledgment email sent to the employee, with a copy to the employer.  Or  the IT management could create a step-by-step explanation of how the system ensures that the  name appearing on the electronic application is attributable to the actual person and not merely inserted later. 

This case is Ruiz v. Moss Bros. Auto and the decision is here.