Turman v. Superior Court

Former restaurant employees sued their former employer, Koji’s Japan, Inc. (Koji’s), Koji’s president, sole shareholder and director Arthur Parent, Jr. (Parent), and A.J. Parent Company, Inc., otherwise known as America’s Printer (America’s Printer), of which Parent was also the president, sole shareholder and director. The plaintiff employees alleged wage and hour claims under the federal Labor Code and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), claims under the California unfair competition law (Bus. & Prof. Code, sec. 17200), and a claim under the California Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA) (Lab. Code, sec. 2699 et seq.). Considering this appeal as a petition for a writ of mandate, the Court of Appeal granted writ relief by holding: (1) the trial court erred by granting the motion to certify a class as to plaintiffs’ claims against only Koji’s because the court applied improper criteria in determining Parent’s potential liability as a joint employer on a class-wide basis; (2) the trial court prejudicially erred by denying plaintiffs’ revised motion to compel further responses to a set of document requests, and also by sanctioning plaintiffs’ counsel; (3) because the Court directed the trial court to vacate its order denying the revised motion to compel further responses to discovery on alter ego issues, the Court directed the trial court to also vacate its findings that Parent and America’s Printer were not Koji’s alter egos; and (4) although the trial court’s statement of decision correctly cited the controlling case law in this matter, the statement of decision misapplied the law as set by that case. View "Turman v. Superior Court" on Justia Law