Excerpt: ...any supplemental filings at least 5 court days before the hearing. LWDA/PAGA RELEASE The settlement agreement states that the participating class members are releasing "all Released PAGA Claims." (Agt, I.1.) The parties might want to amend the agreement in this regard. The named plaintiff acts as agent or proxy of the LWDA under the PAGA and can release the claims of the LWDA. The named plaintiff does not represent the "aggrieved employees" in th...

Excerpt: ... is for ages 2-3. It is sold with a plastic dropper. The label states that it is 160 mg of acetaminophen per 5 ml. The "Children's Pain Relief" states it is for ages 2-11. It is sold with a plastic cup. The label states that it is 160 mg of acetaminophen per 5 ml. The 1AC asserts that by using different names that defendants mislead consumers into thinking that the "Infants' Pain Relief" has a different formulation than the "Children's Pain Relie...

Excerpt: ... paid sick leave based on the employee's "regular rate of pay" as the base hourly wages. Plaintiffs assert that Kaiser should have calculated the employee's "regular rate of pay" as including base hourly wages plus shift differentials, assignment based differentials, longevity differentials, and other non-discretionary wages. (Cpt para 21, 22.) The complaint asserts (1) a UCL unlawful claim borrowing from Labor Code 246; (2) a Labor Code 218, 204...

Excerpt: ...99) 20 Cal. 4th 1178, 1216-1217; In re Marriage of Nicholas (2010) 186 Cal.App.4th 1566, 1575-1575.) In reviewing a motion to seal, the court starts with the "strong presumption ... in favor of public access to court records in ordinary civil trials." (In re Marriage of Nicholas, 186 Cal.App.4th at 1575.) The party seeking to seal a document in a Court file must overcome that "strong presumption" by presenting declarations that contain fact suffi...

Excerpt: ...s on behalf of Midland. Defendant BLG filed a certificate of dissolution on 2/2/15. (Order of 7/27/18.) The claims against BLG have settled. The Complaint contains causes of action for (1) Rosenthal Act Claim (specifically alleged violations of Civil Code ["CC"] section 1788.17) and (2) Unfair Competition Law (violations of Business and Professions Code sections 17200, et seq. ["UCL"]). The complaint seeks, damages, restitution, and injunctive re...

Excerpt: ...s. (Order of 10/6/19.) The case preliminarily settled for monetary relief of a total of approximately $700,000. The settlement agreement states there will be attorneys' fees and cost of up to $210,000 (30%) and a service award of $10,000 for each class representative. The case preliminarily settled for non-monetary relief of agreement to cooperate in the discovery for the claims against Midland. The proposed class notice form and procedure are ad...

Excerpt: ...31/19, plaintiff stopped working at Marshalls. (Cpt para 11.) At that time, plaintiff had no authority to represent the LWDA. Emergency Rule 9 tolled the statute of limitations from 4/6/20 through 10/1/20. During this time period, plaintiff had no authority to represent the LWDA. On 11/4/20, plaintiff provided a PAGA notice to the LWDA and to Defendants. The LWDA presumably failed to respond. Therefore, on or about 1/9/21 plaintiff had authority ...

Excerpt: ...on and discipline. ... Limiting disclosure of third party complaints, investigations, and discipline to the persons who consent to the disclosure and production of their complaints also addresses the burden issue. The results of the opt-in waiver for complaints of race harassment will define the files to be reviewed, which then limits the burden on Tesla of locating the relevant files." On 4/9/21, the court granted in part Tesla's motion to not c...

Excerpt: ...,000. The settlement agreement states there will be attorneys' fees and cost of up to $500,000 (33%), costs of up to $30,000, a service award of $10.000 for the class representative, and settlement administration costs of up to $15,000. After these expenses, the class would get $945,000. The average payout per class member would be approximately $785.00. The proposed class notice form and procedure are adequate. The proposed class is appropriate ...

Excerpt: ...st of up to $566,666 (33%), costs of up to $30,000, a service award of $10.000 for the class representative, a PAGA payment of $150,000 (net of $112,500), and settlement administration costs of up to $21,000. After these expenses, the class would get approximately $960,000. The average payout per class member would be approximately $365.00. The proposed class notice form and procedure are adequate. The proposed class is appropriate for class cert...

Excerpt: ...eeks to abate both cases under CCP 430.10(c) on the ground that there is another cause of action pending between the same parties on the same cause of action. NATURE OF CLAIMS UNDER PAGA The LWDA is the real party in interest in both the Archuletta case and the Aguilar case. Plaintiffs who assert claims under PAGA are asserting claims on behalf of the State of California's Labor Workforce Development Agency. "An employee plaintiff suing ... under...

Excerpt: ...r the [PAGA] does so as the proxy or agent of the state's labor law enforcement agencies." (Iskanian v. CLS Transp. Los Angeles, LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348, 381.) (See also ZB, N.A. v. Superior Court of San Diego County (2019) 2019 WL 4309684 at *4; Tanguilig v. Bloomingdale's, Inc. (2016) 5 Cal.App.5th 665, 671.) A person asserting a claim on behalf of the LWDA under PAGA must obtain court approval for any settlement. Labor Code 2699(l)(2) states...

Excerpt: ...ake any supplemental filings at least 5 court days before the hearing. LWDA/PAGA RELEASE The settlement agreement does not expressly release the claims of the LWDA that were asserted in the case. The briefing suggests that the parties intend to release the claims of the LWDA for penalties. The parties might want to amend the agreement in this regard. The settlement agreement states that the "released claims" includes a release of claims for penal...

Excerpt: ...st of up to $612,000 (35%), costs of up to $30,000, a service award of $7,500 for each of the three class representatives, a net PAGA payment of $18,750, and settlement administration costs of up to $17,000. After these expenses of approximately $699,250, the class would get $1.050,750. The average payout per class member would be $1,263. The proposed class notice form and procedure are adequate. The proposed class is appropriate for class certif...

Excerpt: ...8. On 7/8/21. the United States District Court for the Southern District of California granted defendant's motion to compel arbitration. (Slade v. Empire Today, LLC (S.D. Cal., 2021) 2021 WL 2864813.) On 11/20/20, Plaintiff filed this putative class action against Defendant alleging violations of the disclosure provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act related to background checks in connection with employment. Defendant removed that case to th...

Excerpt: .... "The general rule of motion practice ... is that new evidence is not permitted with reply papers. (Jay v. Mahaffey (2013) 218 Cal.App.4th 1522, 1537-1538.) "A trial court has discretion to consider new evidence in reply papers supporting a summary judgment motion as long as the opposing party has notice and an opportunity to respond. ... Evidence which is used to fill gaps in the original evidence created by the opposition is particularly appro...

Excerpt: ...el for Plaintiff has provided a declaration in support of the motion that provides the information required by CCP 382.4 regarding the absence or presence of a relationship between counsel and the residual beneficiary. Counsel for Plaintiff had a prior employment relationship with Centro de la Raza and currently has a co- counsel relationship with Centro de la Raza. The payment of residual funds to Centro de la Raza creates an appearance of impro...

Excerpt: ...nt administration costs of up to $15,000, and a net PAGA payment of $37,500. After these expenses of approximately $435,833, the class would get $564,167. The average payout per class member would be $1,007. The proposed class notice form and procedure are adequate. The proposed class is appropriate for class certification. The motion makes an adequate analysis as required by Kullar v. Foot Locker Retail, Inc. (2008) 168 Cal.App.4th 116. The scop...

Excerpt: ...nsel must file the required declaration." Counsel must file a declaration with the required information or direct the court to a previously filed declaration with the required information. Assuming that counsel provides the CCP 382.4 information, then the order would be: The motion of plaintiffs for final approval of class action settlement is GRANTED. The motion of plaintiffs for approval of fees and costs and award is GRANTED. APPROVAL OF THE S...

Excerpt: ...costs of up to $25,000, a service award of $5,000 for the class representative, a net PAGA payment of $18,750, and settlement administration costs of up to $6,000. After these expenses of approximately $154,750, the class would get $145,250. The average payout per class members would be $410. The proposed class notice form and procedure are adequate. There were no opt outs and no objections. (Kruckenberg Supp Dec.) The proposed class is appropria...

Excerpt: ... In this case plaintiff Center for Environmental Health assets that defendants sell products that contain acrylamide or will foreseeably contain acrylamide when used, that the acrylamide is in sufficient quantities to be hazardous to health, that the products do not have adequate warnings, and that the defendants are in violation of Proposition 65 (H&S 25249.6 et seq). In California Chamber of Commerce v. Becerra, E.D. Cal. ("CalChamber") the Cal...

Excerpt: ...6-1087.) Class actions cannot be dismissed without Court approval to ensure that the named plaintiff and his or her counsel have not used the threat of a class action as leverage to obtain an unreasonable settlement for the individual named plaintiff. This serves two purposes. First, this ensures that the named plaintiff and his or her counsel do not enrich themselves in violation of their fiduciary duties to the absent class members. (Pirjada v....

Excerpt: ...5. Stated otherwise, "the fruits of pretrial discovery are, in the absence of a court order to the contrary, presumptively public." San Jose Mercury News, Inc. v. United States Dist. Court - N. Dist. (9th Cir. 1999) 187 F.3d 1096, 1103. In determining whether Defendants have demonstrated good cause, the Court considers whether the litigants and third parties have legitimate privacy interests, whether the interests are substantial, and whether tho...

Excerpt: ...6,655 (33%), costs of up to $22,000, a service award of $10,000 for each of the three class representatives, and settlement administration costs of up to $11,200. After these expenses of approximately $182,000, the class would get $170,000. The average payout per class member would be $240.00. The proposed class notice form and procedure are adequate. The proposed class is appropriate for class certification. The motion makes an adequate analysis...

Excerpt: ...irst, the settlement anticipates funding the settlement in two stages (para 3.04) and then making distributions to the class members in two stages. (para 3.01). The funding would be $100,000 six months after preliminary approval (estd 12/25/21) and the balance of $150,000 two months after final approval (estd 2/3/22). The court has no concerns with the two-tier funding, but is not rationally related to the two-tier distribution. Regarding the dis...