Young Living has lost its appeal to compel plaintiffs in a RICO class-action into arbitration.

Back in December a District Court ruled against Young Living’s motion to compel arbitration.

In the wake of the decision, Young Living filed an appeal with the Fifth Circuit. Pending the outcome of the appeal, the RICO class-action was stayed.

In a decision handed down on May 20th, the Fifth Circuit ruled against Young Living.

Specifically, the Fifth Circuit ruled the Policies and Procedures Young Living relied on were

in direct conflict with the Jurisdiction and Choice of Law clause in the Agreement.

Subsequently the Fifth Circuit upheld “there is no valid agreement to arbitrate between the parties”. Young Living was also ordered to pay costs.

The same day the appeal decision was filed the Texas District court removed the case stay.

Looking forward, a hearing on May 26th has resulted in a scheduled May 3rd, 2021 class certification hearing date.

In the meantime Young Living and several defendants filed Motions to Dismiss on June 1st.

Motions to dismiss previously filed by defendants Young Living, Young Living Foundation, Mary Young, Jared Turner and Benjamin Riley, were dismissed without prejudice back in February.

A decision on the latest dismissal motions remains pending.

 

Update July 19th 2020 – While Young Living failed to force arbitration, they have successfully moved the case to Utah.

The class-action was transferred to Utah by court order on June 30th. The motions to dismiss are still playing out.

I’ve added the new Utah case number to our calendar. We’ll continue to track the case as it moves forward.