Geneva Enterprises, LLC v. Aaron Chavez

── Geneva Enterprises, LLC v. Aaron Chavez ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Date: April 10, 2026 Category: General USCA4 Appeal: 25-1469 Doc: 42 Filed: 04/10/2026 Pg: 1 of 14 PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 25-1469 GENEVA ENTERPRISES, LLC; AV AUTOMOTIVE, LLC, Plaintiffs – Appellees, v. AARON CHAVEZ; ALEX GUEVARA; ANA FLORES; ANTHONY CIPRIANO; ANTONIO RIVERA; BRUCE WILSON; CARLOS ROMERO; CHELSEA MONTES; CHRISTIAN ISOPESCU; DOGAN GUNESSEVER; EDWARD MARTIN; ERODITA GUEVARA; EUN SHIN; HECTOR OROZCO; HUGO CAJINA; JAMES OSBORN; JEFFREY SHADE; KAI REED; MICHAEL KENTES; MICHAEL HOOK; PATRICK WHITE; PAUL LYONS; ROBERT DORMAN; ROBERTO HUACCHA; ROY BRAXTON; ROY HIPPERT, JR.; SEAN MCLAIN; THOMAS GRANT; TOMMY TRAN; WILLIAM SMITH; WILLIAM BONILLA, Defendants – Appellants. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria. Claude M. Hilton, Senior District Judge. (1:24-cv-00704-CMH-WBP) Argued: February 25, 2026 Decided: April 10, 2026 Before DIAZ, Chief Judge, and KING and THACKER, Circuit Judges. Dismissed by published opinion. Judge King wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge Diaz and Judge Thacker joined. USCA4 Appeal: 25-1469 Doc: 42 Filed: 04/10/2026 Pg: 2 of 14 ARGUED: Robert Wesley Thayer Tucci, ZIPIN, AMSTER & GREENBERG, LLC, Silver Spring, Maryland, for Appellants. Leslie Paul Machado, O’HAGAN MEYER PLLC, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Thomas J. Eiler, ZIPIN, AMSTER & GREENBERG, LLC, Silver Spring, Maryland, for Appellants. Michael E. Barnsback, O’HAGAN MEYER PLLC, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellees. 2 USCA4 Appeal: 25-1469 Doc: 42 Filed: 04/10/2026 Pg: 3 of 14 KING, Circuit Judge: In this interlocutory appeal from the Eastern District of Virginia, 31 former employees (the “former employees”) of Geneva Enterprises, LLC and AV Automotive, LLC (collectively “Geneva”), challenge the district court’s March 27, 2025 Order, which the former employees maintain denied their “Combined Motion to Lift Stay and Renewed Motion to Compel Arbitration.” See Geneva Enters., LLC v. Chavez, No. 1:24-cv-00704 (E.D. Va. Mar. 27, 2025), ECF No. 26 (the “March 2025 Order”). Relevant here, the March 2025 Order rejected the former employees’ request for relief (i.e., entry of an order compelling arbitration and ordering Geneva to pay arbitration initiation fees), on grounds that “this case has already been referred to arbitration and the case stayed” by the court’s prior Order of June 2024. Id. at 1 (emphasis added). And by its June 2024 Order, the court denied Geneva’s request to “enjoin the arbitration initiated by” the former employees, and otherwise granted the former employees’ request to impose a stay of “this action . . . pending resolution of the parties’ claims in arbitration.” See Geneva Enters., LLC v. Chavez, No. 1:24-cv-00704, at 1 (E.D. Va. June 7, 2024), ECF No. 17 (the “June 2024 Order”). As explained herein, we dismiss this appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction. I. The proceedings giving rise to this appeal are — to put it simply — rather convoluted. As background, the former employees initiated a “mass arbitration” against Geneva in February 2024, before the American Arbitration Association (the “AAA”). 3 USCA4 Appeal: