Allen v. San Diego Convention Center Corporation, Inc. (2022)
Plaintiff filed a class action lawsuit against a former employer, alleging Labor Code violations. The trial court partially sustained defendant’s demurrer, finding the corporation was exempt from liability as a government entity. The court then denied plaintiff’s motion for class certification of her remaining wage payment claim, leaving individual and derivative California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims for trial. Plaintiff appealed.
The Court of Appeal affirmed. As a threshold matter, the court found that the order denying class certification was appealable. Prior case law had held that orders denying class certification are not appealable where a plaintiff has also brought a representative claim under PAGA, because the order does not sound the death knell for the plaintiff’s efforts to seek representative relief. Distinguishing this case law, the Court of Appeal held the order here was appealable because, although the order left plaintiff’s PAGA claim intact—and would thus ordinarily not have the legal effect of a final judgment—the remaining PAGA claim was wholly derivative of her unsustainable wage payment claim. The court then affirmed the order denying class certification because defendant had established as a matter of law that it was a public entity not subject to the Labor Code provisions plaintiff alleged it had violated.
