Facts

Colette Raymond was a external home loan consultant at defendant Countrywide Home Loans Inc., in Santa Ana. In November 2003, Raymond was contacted by defendant Ira Meltzer and asked to transfer to Countrywide's Palm Desert office to work predominantly on construction loans. Raymond was also told that her responsibilities would include handling "spot loans" on occasion. The parties entered into an employment agreement with a payment schedule.

On Dec. 1, 2003, Raymond began working in the Palm Desert branch. Her employment was terminated on Oct. 29, 2004. During this period, Raymond had made several complaints to supervisors regarding alleged unlawful and/or unethical conduct occurring at the Palm Desert branch. She sued Countrywide and her supervisors for fraudulent inducement, breach of contract, sex discrimination, unlawful discharge, constructive discharge, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The defense petitioned to compel arbitration.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Raymond claimed that the payment schedule was not followed and that she was inundated with "spot loan" agreements, in breach of her employment contract. Also, Raymond claimed that notarizations took place outside of the presence of customers, and that improper fees were being collected by another consultant. Furthermore, she contended that sexually discriminatory conduct occurred in relation to her pay. She reported these issues to her supervisor to no avail.

Damages

Raymond claimed compensatory damages and punitive damages.

Injuries

The plaintiff claimed emotional distress

Result

The arbitrator found in favor of the defense.

Other Information

According to plaintiff's counsel: The case is now on appeal to the Fourth District, Division Two, on grounds, inter alia, of abuse of discretion in both granting the petition to compel arbitration (it was a hotly contested matter) due to substantive and procedural unconscionability and in confirming the arbitration award both on grounds of legal error and bias on the arbitrator's part. Not only have all the consequences of the illegal transactions Ms. Raymond warned about at Countrywide come to pass (Countrywide sold to Bank of America, former CEO Mozilo has been federally sued for civil fraud by the SEC, Bank of America had to settle a lawsuit by the California attorney general and other state attorneys general for deceptive loan practices, etc.), but Cable Connection, Inc. v. DirecTV, Inc. (2008) makes it clear that parties to arbitration can contract to review legal error, which the court below ruled it could not. That alone is obvious reversible error. FILING DATE: Oct. 12, 2005.