On January 26, 2011, the California Supreme Court granted review in Hernandez v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (October 28, 2010) — Cal.App.4th —, 2010 WL 4244583. The Court granted review pending its decision in Brinker v. Superior Court (Hohnbaum). In Hernandez, previously addressed by this blog, the Court of Appeal affirmed a trial court order denying class certification of meal and rest period claims. The Court of Appeal held that California employers are only required to make available meal and rest periods to employees. As a result, the Court held that individual issues predominated over common issues. In other words, the Court had to look at whether each individual had meal and rest periods made available to them, but independently choose not to take them.
This recent action by the California Supreme Court grows the number of cases waiting for the decision in Brinker to five: Brinkley v. Public Storage, Bradley v. Networkers Int’l LLC, Faulkinbury v. Boyd & Associates, Brookler v. Radioshack Corp., and Hernandez v. Chipotle. We will all just have to sit tight and patiently wait for the Court to act.