Douglass v. Pflueger Hawaii, Inc.
Hawaii Supreme Court
135 P.3d 129 (2006)
Pflueger Hawaii (defendant), an Acura dealership, hired 17-year-old Adrian Douglass (plaintiff), a high school graduate, as a lot technician. At a training session, Douglass signed an acknowledgment in the employee handbook agreeing that employment disputes would go to arbitration. About four months later he was injured on the job and sued Pflueger in state court on five claims. Pflueger moved to stay the suit and compel arbitration based on the handbook acknowledgment; the trial court granted the motion, and Douglass appealed.
Whether Hawaii's child labor law supplies the protections that apply to a minor's employment contract, displacing the general common-law rule that contracts made by minors are voidable.