Supreme Court Closes CAFA Loophole in Standard Fire v. Knowles
Immigration. There were many decisions by classes seeking certification of habeas claims related to President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act that reached different decisions on whether to certify...more
Bank Employee Who Was Harassed By A Customer Can Proceed With Sexual Harassment Claim - Christian v. Umpqua Bank, 2020 WL 7777882 (9th Cir. 2020) - Jennifer Christian, a former employee of Umpqua Bank, alleged she was...more
Garner v. Inter-State Oil Co., 52 Cal.App.5th 619, Cal. App. 3 Dist., June 26, 2020, as modified (Jul 23, 2020) - Plaintiff filed a class action alleging that his employer, Inter-State Oil Co., violated a variety of wage...more
Congress enacted the Class Action Fairness Act to address perceived problems with the handling of class actions by courts. Among its provisions was one permitting removal of more class action claims to federal court. ...more
Takeaway: In a prior article – Ninth Circuit: two pro-defendant decisions clarify burdens regarding CAFA’s $5 million jurisdictional threshold (September 14, 2020) – we examined two recent Ninth Circuit cases where the...more
Adams v. West Marine Prods., Inc., 958 F.3d 1216 (9th Cir. 2020) - Adrianne Adams filed a putative wage and hour class action in state court, which her former employer (West Marine) removed to federal court under the...more
On Christmas Eve, the Third Circuit issued a decision restricting certification of wage/hour classes for off-the-clock cases and increasing the threshold for other wage/hour matters. See Ferreras v. American Airlines, Inc....more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently underscored that removal practice under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) differs in some important respects from traditional removal practice in non-CAFA cases. It did so...more
The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (“CAFA”) grants federal courts jurisdiction to preside over certain class action cases where, based on the claims alleged, the amount in controversy is more than $5 million, among other...more
The Ninth Circuit vacated a remand order implicating the local and home-state controversy exceptions to CAFA jurisdiction in a putative class action by former California resident employees of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) for...more
In Fritsch v. Swift Transp. Co. of Ariz., LLC, No. 18-55746 (Aug. 18, 2018), the Ninth Circuit clarified, in a unanimous published decision, that, where a party may recover its attorney’s fees by statute or contract, the...more
Takeaway: Class action complaints often seek the certification of “statewide” classes that would seem to include only residents of the target state. But when it comes to establishing an exception to diversity jurisdiction...more
Introduction and Overview - Since the turn of the century, there has been a huge increase in the number of class action lawsuits alleging violations of California’s overtime laws or other Labor Code statutes and wage and...more
The big news this quarter is the U.S. Supreme Court’s acceptance of Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, an employment case likely to have major ramifications across the whole spectrum of class action litigation. The Court is set...more
We are excited to announce the 15th edition of Seyfarth Shaw’s publication Litigating California Wage & Hour and Labor Code Class Actions. As in previous editions, the publication discusses and analyzes the most commonly...more
Newly Enacted California Statutes - The Word "Alien" Is Stricken From The California Labor Code - Section 1725 of the California Labor Code defines "alien" as "any person who is not a born or fully naturalized...more
The Ninth Circuit recently delivered a setback to defendants seeking to remove cases to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”) when it interpreted the statute narrowly to exclude consideration of non-class...more
Until a couple of years ago, plaintiffs’ attorneys seeking to keep their class actions in state court would frequently stipulate that they would not seek damages in excess of the $5 million CAFA threshold. This practice fell...more
Through a pair of opinions issued the same day, the Ninth Circuit attempted to clarify the evidence required for a defendant to meet its burden of showing that the amount in controversy exceeds CAFA’s $5 million threshold...more
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied plaintiff’s motion to remand, holding that plaintiff’s claim for unpaid wages and overtime satisfied CAFA’s amount-in-controversy requirement. ...more
In Romulus v. CVS Pharmacy, Inc., No. 14-1937, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 20548 (1st Cir. Oct. 24, 2014), the First Circuit Court of Appeals clarified the conditions triggering a defendant’s 30-day window to remove a case to...more
The First Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that the thirty-day time period for removal under CAFA is triggered when the plaintiffs’ complaint or plaintiffs’ subsequent other papers provide defendants with sufficient...more
In Rea v. Michaels Stores, No. 14-55008, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 2928 (9th Cir. Feb. 18, 2014), the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s order remanding a wage-and-hour class complaint to state court, ruling that the...more
Gold v. New York Life Insurance Co., No. 12-CV-2344 (2d Cir. Sept. 18, 2013) (Parker, J.): The plaintiff brought suit on behalf of himself and others alleging that he was improperly classified as exempt from the New York...more