Cases: Employment

  2/7 DCA Panel Agreed With The Reasoning In the USS-Posco Industries Case.       In Jakiel v. Impresa Aerospace, LLC, Case Nos. B261175/B264508 (2d Dist., Div. 7 Mar. 8, 2017) (unpublished), the appellate court reversed a grant of over $129,000 in attorney’s fees in favor of an employer winning summary judgment in a wage/hour case.

  Deals With Attorney’s Fees Awardable, Depending On Civil Court Jurisdiction, Under Labor Code Section 98.2(a).       On February 16, 2017, we posted on the Second District’s decision in Beck v. Stratton, which dealt with a $31,365 Labor Code section 98.2(a) attorney’s fees award to employee in a Labor Commissioner case were the unpaid wage/penalties

Unlimited Civil Default Rules Applied Such That $31,365 Fee Recovery Allowable Under Case Producing About $6,000 Compensatory Unpaid Wage/Penalty Award.     Beck v. Stratton, Case No. B270826 (2d Dist., Div. 4 Feb. 14, 2017) (unpublished) is a situation where the Labor Commissioner awarded an ex-employee about $6,000 in unpaid wages and penalties against his former

  4/3 DCA Sides With First District in USS-Posco Decision On Retroactivity Issue.     On January 1, 2014, Labor Code section 218.5 was amended significantly, changing a reciprocal fee-shifting statute in an employment context to only vex a losing plaintiff bringing certain wage/hour cases in bad faith.  The retroactive impact of this decision was squarely

  Section Allows Fee Recovery Against Either Losing Employee or Employer.     Labor Code section 98.2(c) is a two-way fee-shifting fee provision which mandates a lower court to award fees against either an employer or employee bringing an unsuccessful appeal from a Labor Commissioner ruling.  The legislative purpose of this section is to discourage meritless

  Damages Award Was Inside Of $25,000 Jurisdictional Limit, But Lower Court Did Not Abuse Discretion By Granting Fees Anyway.     California Code of Civil Procedure section 1033(a) does allow a trial judge to discretionarily deny any award of attorney’s fees to a litigant who files an unlimited jurisdiction case but obtains a damages award

  Fourth Circuit Adopts An Intermediate Standard On The Issue.     The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Andrews v. America’s Living Center, LLC, No. 15-1658 (4th Cir. June 28, 2016) (published) confronted a situation as to whether a plaintiff previously dismissing a FLSA suit, but later refilling, had to pay attorney’s fees as costs

  Considered Costs, Fees Do Not Have To Be Expressly Pled.     In Dept. of Fair Employment and Housing v. FloraTech Landscape Mgt., Inc., Case No. A139762 (1st Dist., Div. 4 June 30, 2016) (unpublished), DFEH filed an administrative charge of disability discrimination against defendant, which transferred the matter to superior court and lost a