Plaintiff Urges Court to Deny T-Mobile’s Motion to Compel Her Claims to Arbitration

When Esperanza Rendon first opened her T-Mobile account, the carrier’s representatives provided her with no documents in Spanish, even though they knew that she only speaks Spanish, said Rendon’s memorandum Friday (docket 2:24-cv-01666) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles in opposition to T-Mobile’s May 28 motion to compel her claims to arbitration (see 2405290053). Yet when the plaintiff “formed a claim” against T-Mobile, the carrier then sought to enforce an arbitration agreement, without previously disclosing it to Rendon and without putting her on “inquiry notice” to seek such an agreement, said her opposition. T-Mobile also wishes to deprive Rendon of any opportunity to challenge the arbitration agreement by claiming that it contains a delegation clause that gives the arbitrator the authority to determine the issues of arbitrability, contract formation and contractual defenses, it said. T-Mobile’s motion to compel arbitration “must fail” because the arbitration agreement and its delegation clause are “unenforceable,” it said. The plaintiff also should be allowed to have limited discovery “on the contractual defenses such as unconscionability and contract formation issues,” it said. Rendon is suing T-Mobile to challenge the “regulatory programs & telco recovery fee” on its monthly invoices. She also claims that when she purchased additional phones from T-Mobile, she was charged for “add-on” device protection plans without her knowledge or consent.