Peck v. Swift Transportation (Feb. 11, 2022, No. 20-55119)
Two private plaintiffs sued defendant under the California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) for violations of the California Labor code. The parties reached a settlement. One individual, not one of the plaintiffs, objected to the PAGA portion of the settlement while another individual, also not a plaintiff, objected to the monetary award for the class claims as unfair and unreasonable. The district court overruled the objections and approved both the PAGA settlement and the class action settlement.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, ruling that the PAGA settlement could not be appealed because the appealing individual was not a “party” to the underlying PAGA action and, unlike absent class members in class action lawsuits, objectors to a PAGA settlement are not deemed to be “parties” to the PAGA action. The court vacated approval of the class claims portion of the settlement agreement because the district court applied the wrong legal standard when evaluating the settlement.
