Gonzales v. San Gabriel Transit, Inc., 2019 WL 4942213 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019) Francisco Gonzales filed this putative class action against his former employer, San Gabriel Transit (“SGT”), alleging that he and 550 other drivers were misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees. The trial court denied class certification on the ground that Gonzales had failed to demonstrate the requisite community of interest or typicality among SGT drivers. While Gonzales’ appeal was pending, the California…

O’Grady v. Merchant Exchange Prods., Inc., 2019 WL 5617001 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019) In this putative class action, banquet server and bartender Lauren O’Grady alleged that her employer’s practice of automatically imposing a 21 percent “service charge” to every food and beverage banquet bill constituted a gratuity that had to be fully paid to nonmanagerial service staff employees pursuant to Cal. Lab. Code § 351. The trial court sustained the employer’s demurrer to the complaint…

Naranjo v. Spectrum Sec. Servs., Inc., 40 Cal. App. 5th 444 (2019) Spectrum contracts with federal agencies to take temporary custody of federal prisoners and ICE detainees who must travel offsite for medical treatment and other appointments; Spectrum’s officers provide continuous supervision until the individuals are returned to their custodial locations. Spectrum had a policy that required on-duty meal periods for which officers were paid at their regular rate, but it did not have a…

Southern Cal. Pizza Co. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London, 40 Cal. App. 5th 140 (2019) Lloyds of London provided the employer in this case with an employment practices liability insurance (“EPLI”) policy, which contained an exclusion relating to “wage and hour or overtime law(s).” In this insurance coverage dispute, the employer alleged the policy exclusion is narrower in scope than Lloyd’s contended. The trial court sustained the insurer’s demurrer to the complaint, but the…

Liday v. Sim, 40 Cal. App. 5th 359 (2019) Lea Liday sued her former employers for unpaid wages incurred from April 2010 until April 2014. Liday worked as the family’s live-in caretaker for their children and was paid a fixed salary of $3,000 per month. The trial court determined that Liday was a “personal attendant” under Wage Order No. 15 and that her salary did not compensate her at the statutory minimum wage for all…

Carroll v. City & County of San Francisco, 2019 WL 5617019 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019) Joyce Carroll retired from her job working for the City of San Francisco in 2000 due to rheumatoid arthritis; since that time, Carroll received monthly disability retirement benefit payments. Plaintiff alleged that she became aware in 2017 (17 years after she had retired) that the City provided employees such as herself who were over the age of 40 when they…

Salazar v. McDonald’s Corp., 939 F.3d 1051 (9th Cir. 2019) McDonald’s Corporation (“McDonald’s”) was named as a defendant in a putative class action filed by the employees of the Haynes Family Limited Partnership, which operated eight McDonald’s franchises in the Bay Area. The putative class members alleged they were denied overtime premiums, meal and rest breaks and other violations of the California Labor Code; they further alleged that McDonald’s and its franchises were their joint…