Castillo v. Western Range Ass’n, 2017 WL 1364584 (D. Nev. April 13, 2017).

In dismissing a wage-and-hour class action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada held that the CAFA’s amount-in-controversy requirement cannot be aggregated when each plaintiff’s claims are wholly unrelated to the other and when the defendants are not jointly liable.Continue Reading CAFA’s Amount in Controversy Could Not be Aggregated When Each Plaintiff’s Claims Are Wholly Unrelated to the Claims of the Other and When the Defendants Are Not Jointly Liable

Mackall v. Healthsource Global Staffing, Inc. Case No. 16-cv-03810 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 2, 2016).

A district court in California found that allegations of wilful failure to timely pay wages are sufficient to support estimations of waiting time penalties at a 100% rate.

The plaintiff, Karen Mackall, filed this putative class action in the Superior Court of California, county of Alameda, on behalf of a class of all current and former non-exempt hourly Registered Nurses employed by the defendant. The plaintiff alleged causes of action for failure to pay minimum wages; failure to pay overtime compensation; failure to provide meal and rest periods; failure to keep accurate payroll records; and failure to pay wages of terminated or resigned employees etc. The plaintiff also asserted a claim under PAGA.

The defendant removed the action under CAFA asserting minimal diversity claiming that it was a citizen of California, whereas, the home mailing addresses for the putative class members established that many them were citizens of other states. The defendant asserted that the class consisted of at least 1,242 putative class members and the amount-in-controversy exceeded $5 million.

The plaintiff responded with a motion to remand arguing that the defendant failed to prove that the amount-in-controversy exceeded CAFA’s statutory requirement of $5 million. The amount-in-controversy was the only dispute between the parties.
Continue Reading California Waiting Time Penalties May Benefit Employers in Establishing the Amount in Controversy

Henry Chen, et al. v. United Talent Agency, LLC, et al., 2017 WL 946642 (C.D. Cal. March 10, 2017).

A class action filed in state court was remanded by the U.S. District Court in California because the court found that the removing defendant improperly relied on PAGA penalties and anticipated but un-accrued attorney’s fees to satisfy CAFA’s jurisdictional amount-in-controversy requirement.Continue Reading PAGA Penalties Cannot Be Used to Reach CAFA’s Amount-in-Controversy Requirement

Taylor v. Cox Communications California, LLC, 2016 WL 7422717 (9th Cir. Dec. 23, 2016).

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s order denying the plaintiff’s motion to remand, finding that the defendant’s second notice of removal was timely and proper, particularly when the plaintiff did not provide the defendant with any “other paper” necessary to trigger CAFA’s 30-day period for removing the case to the federal court.

Continue Reading Defendant’s Second Notice of Removal Timely and Proper due to Relevant Change in Circumstances caused by Supreme Court’s Decision in Standard Fire

Ritenour v. Carrington Mortgage Services LLC, 2017 WL 59069 (C.D. Cal.  Jan. 5, 2017).

In this action, while denying the plaintiffs’ motion to remand, a district court in California, found that  the defendant only needs to offer evidence sufficient to establish that CAFA’s amount-in-controversy requirement was met by a preponderance of the evidence and was not obligated to research, state, and prove the plaintiffs’ claims for damages.
Continue Reading A Removing Defendant Is Not Obligated To Research, State, And Prove The Plaintiff’s Claims

Stafford v. Brinks Inc., 2014 WL 10320456 (C.D. Cal. May 28, 2014)

A District Court in California ruled that civil penalties under the California Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (“PAGA”) could be aggregated as class claims to meet the amount-in-controversy requirement for CAFA jurisdiction.
Continue Reading An Employee’s PAGA Claims Can Be Aggregated for CAFA Purposes

Cisneros v. Lerner New York, Inc., 2016 WL 4059612 (C.D. Cal. July 25, 2016).

Plaintiffs, Ana Ciseneros and Farank Safa, filed this putative class action in the Los Angeles County Superior Court against their employer, Lerner New York, Inc. (“Lerner”), alleging eight causes of action including, failure to provide accurate wage statements, failure to pay overtime compensation, failure to pay wages on regularly established paydays and several violations of the California Labor Code. Lerner is a specialty manufacturer and retailer of women’s clothing and accessories. Plaintiff Ana Cisneros is an hourly employee in Lerner’s retail store and working as a Store Sales Leader and Faranak Safa is a former employee, and who was previously employed as a store manager.

Continue Reading California District Court Remands Putative Class Action Due to Defendant’s Failure to Provide Evidence to Support its Calculations of the Amount in Controversy

Dobbs v. Wood Group PSN, Inc., 2016 WL 4367218 (E.D. Cal. Aug. 16, 2016)

The District Court found that the defendant did not satisfy CAFA’s jurisdictional amount-in-controversy threshold. The defendant failed to demonstrate by preponderance of the evidence that its assumption of imputing a 100 percent violation rate was justified. The Court granted the plaintiff’s motion to remand.

The plaintiff filed a complaint in the Superior Court of California for the County of Kern asserting claims against the defendant, his employer, for violations of the California Labor Code and Business and Professions Code, including unpaid meal and rest premiums, unpaid overtime and minimum wages, waiting time penalties, etc. In his complaint, the plaintiff did not specify the amount of damages. The defendant, however, removed the action to federal court under CAFA, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d), contending that the amount in controversy exceeded $5 million. Thereafter, the plaintiff moved to remand.Continue Reading Case Remanded Where Defendant Failed to Provide Sufficient Evidence to Satisfy CAFA’s Jurisdictional Amount in Controversy Threshold