District Court Should Have Enforced Individualized Arbitration Agreements

O’Dell v. Aya Healthcare Servs., Inc., 171 F.4^th 1173 (9^th Cir. 2026)

This case arose from unpaid wage claims brought by former employees of Aya Healthcare, a travel‑nursing agency. The district court initially compelled four cases to individual arbitrations without ruling on the enforceability of the agreement because the agreement contained a delegation clause which provided that an arbitrator would decide the validity of the agreement. The results in arbitration were split: two arbitrators upheld the arbitration agreements while two struck them down. When Aya later sought to enforce the same arbitration agreement against different employees, the district court disregarded the valid delegation clause in the agreement and issued its own ruling on the enforceability of the arbitration agreement. In doing so, the district court relied exclusively on the unfavorable arbitration rulings—giving them preclusive effect while refusing to enforce the agreement for over 250 other former