NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS AUG 6 2021
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
JOSHUA GODHART, No. 20-16140
Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No.
2:19-cv-01541-JAD-VCF
v.
TESLA, INC., MEMORANDUM*
Defendant-Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Nevada
Jennifer A. Dorsey, District Judge, Presiding
Submitted August 4, 2021**
San Francisco, California
Before: THOMAS, Chief Judge, and HAWKINS and McKEOWN, Circuit
Judges.
Joshua Godhart (“Godhart”) appeals pro se the district court’s order
compelling arbitration and dismissing his employment discrimination and
retaliation action against Tesla, Inc. (“Tesla”). We have jurisdiction under 9
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
**
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
U.S.C. § 16(a)(3) and 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.
We review de novo a district court’s order compelling arbitration. Lambert
v. Tesla, Inc., 923 F.3d 1246, 1248 (9th Cir. 2019).
Godhart has waived his challenge that he was entitled to a jury trial on the
making of the arbitration agreement by not raising the argument in his oppositions
to Tesla’s motions. See Brown v. Gen. Tel. Co. of California, 108 F.3d 208, 210
n.1 (9th Cir. 1997) (holding that a pro se plaintiff may not raise a new issue on
appeal where the issue was not raised before the district court); cf. Walsh v. Nev.
Dep’t of Hum. Res., 471 F.3d 1033, 1037 (9th Cir. 2006) (holding that an issue is
considered abandoned if it was not raised in response to a defendant’s motion to
dismiss so that it was not ruled on by the district court).
We deem without merit Godhart’s argument that the decision from the ALJ
of the National Labor Relations Board weighed in favor of a jury trial: neither
Godhart nor Tesla were parties to the arbitration agreements at issue in the NLRB
case, which addressed other employees’ rights to access the NLRB.
AFFIRMED.
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