Sargent v. Board of Trustees of the California State University (Mar. 5, 2021, A153072, A154926)
California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) permits an aggrieved employee to bring a representative action on behalf of current or former employees to recover civil penalties for wage-related violations of California’s Labor Code. The statute authorizes two types of penalties: (1) preexisting penalties available for violations of certain Labor Code provisions that themselves provide penalties previously recoverable only by the Labor Workforce Development Agency or its related entities; and (2) default penalties created by PAGA for violations of certain Labor Code provisions that do not themselves provide for penalties.
In Sargent, the plaintiff brought a PAGA claim against California State University and his supervisor for the way he was treated after raising environmental concerns at Sonoma State University. A jury awarded $2.9 million in PAGA penalties consisting of both preexisting and default PAGA penalties.
The Court of Appeal reversed the PAGA award. The court held that plaintiffs asserting PAGA claims against public entity employers could seek only preexisting PAGA penalties for violations of Labor Code statutes that themselves provide for penalties. Moreover, the court decided that the plaintiff’s PAGA award must be reversed in its entirety because: (1) as to public entity employers, PAGA did not authorize the recovery of default penalties created by PAGA itself; and (2) the jury did not find that the plaintiff personally suffered from violations of those Labor Code statutes authorizing preexisting penalties.
