A Texas appellate court ruled that an employer could not require their employee to arbitrate his personal injury claim with them.

The Texas Court of Appeals, 4^th District, found that Stagg Restaurants, a franchisee of McDonald’s, failed to show that their employee, Fred Serra, received notice of its arbitration policy in order to compel him to arbitrate claims relating to a workplace injury.

Fred Serra worked at a McDonald’s that was owned by Stagg Restaurants. He filed a suit against them in 2014, asserting he had suffered an injury at work.

Stagg claimed he received an occupational injury plan on July 19, 2014, and the plan contained an agreement to arbitrate disputes arising from personal injuries sustained on the job. He testified that he never received the plan and was not notified about the arbitration provision. A trial court heard and denied their motion, so they appealed.

Stagg argued that the arbitration policy outlined within its occupational injury plan included a mandatory condition of employment that the employee automatically accepted when continuing employment with the restaurant. The appeals court said his employment documents and orientation documents did not include the occupational injury plan, and there were no indications whether he ever received a copy or agreed to the arbitration agreement. The court determined Stagg failed their burden of proof to show that he received proper notice of the arbitration policy. Stagg’s motion to compel arbitration was again denied.

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