A former nanny for Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis who alleges Sudeikis wrongfully terminated her in 2022 says in new court papers that she was unaware her work contract contained an alleged agreement to arbitrate any employment disputes and that she believes her claims should be decided by a jury.
Plaintiff Ericka Genaro alleges in her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that after Wilde, 39, moved out of the home she shared with Sudeikis, 47, and the former couple’s two children, her anxiety increased because it dramatically increased her caretaker role in the offsprings’ lives.
Genaro alleges discrimination, retaliation and failure to accommodate and engage in the interactive process. But in a previously filed sworn declaration, Wilde says the plaintiff is indeed bound by the arbitration clause and that Genaro resigned after the actors refused to bow to the nanny’s salary demands.
Genaro filed her own declaration on Friday with Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis, stating that she would not have been hired if she refused to sign the papers. She also states that she is not a lawyer and has no legal training.
“Furthermore, when I signed these documents, I had almost zero experience reviewing contracts,” Genaro says.
Genaro says she was hired by Wilde and Sudeikis through the Elizabeth Rose Agency, which she says told her not to review the paperwork with an attorney.
“In fact, I was not given an opportunity nor was I able to review the documents with counsel before I signed and returned them,” according to Genaro, who further says that Wilde and Sudeikis did not provide her with a copy of American Arbitration Association rules when she was presented with a confidentiality agreement.
But in their motion to compel arbitration, the actors’ attorneys state that Genaro contractually agreed that any disputes related to her employment would be resolved in binding arbitration in New York state when she was hired in November 2018. The lawyers also maintain that Genaro promised to keep confidential what she learned about the family, but she sued in “utter disregard” of her obligation to arbitrate disputes and of her confidentiality obligations.
“When the true facts are told, Genaro’s complaint will be understood for exactly what it is, i.e., the culmination of a two-year extortion scheme by which Genaro has been terrorizing Sudeikis, Wilde and their two young children, threatening to level false and scurrilous accusations against the former couple and warning that she can be ruthless unless they capitulate to her exorbitant demands for money,” the actors’ attorneys state.
When the nanny was hired, Wilde, Sudeikis and Sudeikis’ business managers at ML Management LLC did not know of “Genaro’s troubling past criminal record, which they only learned of after Genaro began trying to get publicity for herself and undeserved money from defendants,” the former couple’s lawyer further state in their court papers.
According to Genaro’s suit, she and the actors entered group therapy and the therapist referred the plaintiff to an osteopath who suggested she have temporary “radio silence” from everyone. The therapist told Sudeikis about the osteopath’s recommendation to Genaro, according to the plaintiff’s court papers.
“In other words, plaintiff needed a three-day medical leave of absence because of her mental health — aka a stress leave,” the suit filed Feb. 14 states.
When Genaro objected after Sudeikis demanded to talk to her not long after the osteopath’s recommendation, he fired her, according to Genaro’s suit. Genaro further contends she received no subsequent support from Wilde and that the actress betrayed a confidence by revealing to Sudeikis what the plaintiff had told the actress about her anxiety regarding the couple’s breakup.
Genaro believes she lost her job because she suffered from anxiety and depression and sought a brief leave to deal with both, her court papers state.