The district court abused its discretion in denying class certification of a claim that defendant violated California labor laws by requiring employees to remain on premises during rest breaks. The evidence showed that defendant enforced that policy consistently across all its employees, making the claim suitable for class certification. However, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying… Read More
For the second time, the Ninth Circuit reverses approval of a class action settlement in this case which challenged Tinder's charging those over 30 more than younger subscribers for its dating services. The Ninth Circuit finds that the named plaintiff was not an adquate representative of the class because her interest conflicted with that of a large number of class… Read More
After Habelt filed a class action for securities fraud against iRhythm, Miss. Public Retirement System was appointed the class representative pursuant to the PSLRA. The Retirement System's amended complaint was dismissed without leave to amend. The Retirement System did not appeal from the dismissal. The mere fact that Habelt remained a name in the case caption didn't confer standing on… Read More
The trial court erred in sustaining defendants' demurrer to the class action allegations of the complaint in this case which sought actual and punitive damages for the defendants' misuse of the Ellis Act to evict tenants from rent-controlled units and then to list units in the same building on AirBnB for tenancies of up to three years. The decision holds… Read More
The Court of Appeals may raise sua sponte a question as to whether CAFA jurisdiction exists in a removed action even though neither the plaintiff nor the district court challenged the defendant's removal of the action or questioned the existence of CAFA jurisdiction. Here, neither the removal notice nor an attached declaration established that CAFA's $5 million amount in controversy… Read More
The district court abused its discretion in approving a $1.7 million fee award in a class action copyright infringement case in which class members received only $50,000 in a claims made settlement and no injunctive or other non-monetary relief. While $1.7 million might be an actual assessment of fees by the hours times rate lodestar method, the resulting amount must… Read More
This split decision holds that under Morgan v. Sundance, Inc. (2022) 142 S.Ct. 1708, an employer waived the right to compel arbitration against class member employees who signed a 2002 arbitration agreement even though they became parties to the lawsuit only late in the case when a class was certified. Though the named plaintiff had not signed the arbitration agreement,… Read More
The district court did not abuse its discretion in certifying two California and one national classes in a suit by detained immigrants against the private company that ran the detention centers. The defendant's written corporate policies required inmates to work, cleaning bathrooms and other public areas under threat of discipline, and the defendant had a policy of misclassifying inmates as… Read More
Under In re On-Line DVD Rental Antitrust Litig. (Frank v. Netflix, Inc.) (9th Cir. 2015) 779 F.3d 934), a court considers three factors to decide if a class settlement is a "coupon settlement subject to CAFA's (28 USC 1712's) restriction on attorney fee awards. First, do class members receive only a discount on services and must pay more out of… Read More
This decision holds that there is a constitutional limit on aggregate statutory damage awards even if the statutory damage per violation passes constitutional muster. An aggregate damage award may exceed due process limits in extreme situations—that is, when they are “wholly disproportioned” and “obviously unreasonable” in relation to the goals of the statute and the conduct the statute prohibits. Constitutional… Read More
The settlement released claims of all class members who had bought iPhones on which Apple software throttled performance to avoid overtaxing the battery, but the settlement fund was payable only to those class members who submitted an attestation that they had experienced the slowing of the iPhone's functions as a result of the throttling. This decision holds that the settlement… Read More
Incentive awards to individual plaintiffs in a class action are permissible when reasonable in amount and not an improper preferential allocation of substantial settlement funds to individual plaintiffs to the class' detriment. Read More
Though it did most other things right, the district court erred in expressly employing the wrong standard to decide whether the class action settlement in this case was fair, just, and equitable. In a pre-certification settlement, like this one, the district court may not presume the settlement is reasonable but must instead exercise heightened scrutiny. Application of the wrong standard… Read More
The district court erred in certifying a plaintiff class in this case challenging defendant's classification of its property preservation workers as independent contractors and asserting claims for overtime pay and expense reimbursement. Plaintiffs could not prove fact of damage--not just amount of damage--by common evidence since some class members had not worked overtime or incurred reimbursable business expenses. The district… Read More
Plaintiff was a nurse, employed by a staffing company, on temporary assignment to a hospital run by defendant. Plaintiff brought separate class actions against the staffing company and the hospital for wage and hour violations. This decision holds that the settlement and dismissal of plaintiff's suit against the staffing company did not end or preclude her suit against the defendant. … Read More
The FAA does not preempt California law insofar as it invalidates a waiver of an employee's right to bring PAGA claims arising out of Labor Code violations that affected the plaintiff employee. However, the FAA does preempt California law (Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348 and progeny) insofar as it precludes waiver of the employee's… Read More
The district court abused its discretion in denying class certification on the ground of lack of numerosity in this Title IX case charging unequal sports programs for females in Hawaii state schools. The absolute size of the class--300 currently enrolled students--satisfied numerosity, as the plaintiff's claims challenged the state's overall treatment of female athletes, necessarily affecting all 300 female athletes. … Read More
Following Berroteran v. Superior Court (2022) 2021 Cal. LEXIS 8418, this decision holds that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting testimony by Ford witnesses given in depositions in a class action involving defects in the same model truck as plaintiff sued on. Plaintiffs were not parties to the class action since the class was not certified… Read More
Plaintiff employee's initial complaint sought individual and class relief for Labor Code violations as well as PAGA claims for statutory penalties for the same violations. After defendant employer moved to compel arbitration, plaintiff amended the complaint to delete the individual and class claims, leaving only the PAGA claims. This decision holds that the amendment was effective to avoid arbitration. Under… Read More
As a Juul employee, Grove obtained stock options which he exercised to buy shares of Juul stock. Grove sued Juul in California asserting a claim for the right to inspect Juul's books and records and also class and derivative claims against Juul's officers and directors. The California court first stayed the inspection claim based on the forum selection clause in… Read More
