Case Updates

The Critical Case Recap: Week of October 13, 2014

Dynamex v. Superior Court (California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate Division): What It’s About:  Employer Dynamex appealed the trial court’s denial of its motion to decertify, arguing that the court improperly adopted the definition of “employee” from IWC Wage Orders to determine the status of class members, instead of using the common law definition of

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The Critical Case Recap: Week of October 6, 2014

Ybarra v. Apartment Investment and Management Company (California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District): What It’s About:  The Court of Appeal vacated and reconsidered its prior order reversing the trial court’s order denying the defendant’s motion to compel arbitration.  In light of Iskanian, the Court of Appeal held that the representative action waiver in the

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The Critical Case Recap: Week of June 30, 2014

Ayala v. Antelope Valley Newspapers (California Supreme Court) What It’s About:  Newspaper home delivery carriers claiming they had been misclassified as independent contractors, brought a class action for overtime wages, unreimbursed business expenses, and other employment benefits.  Affirming a Court of Appeal decision, the California Supreme Court found that the trial court had erred in

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The Critical Case Recap: Week of June 2, 2014

Laguna v. Coverall North America, Inc. (Ninth Circuit) What It’s About:  Over an objection and the dissent of Judge Chen, this Ninth Circuit majority opinion approved the pre-certification class settlement of misclassification claims, as well as claims related to the franchise agreements between the defendant janitorial franchising company and its franchisees.  The decision held that

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The Critical Case Recap: Week of May 26, 2014

Duran v. U.S. Bank National Association What It’s About:  In a much-anticipated decision, the California Supreme Court struck down a $15 million trial court verdict obtained on behalf of employees who claimed they were misclassified as overtime-exempt, due to the trial court’s “flawed implementation of sampling,” which did not permit the defendant to present its

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