Denial Of Class Certification In Executive Exemption Case Upheld
Posted by Kendra D. Miller
Dunbar v. Albertson’s, Inc., _ Cal. Rptr. 3d _, 2006 WL 2025013 (Cal. App. 1st Dist. July 20, 2006)
The Court of Appeal (First Appellate District, Division One) affirmed the trial court’s order denying class certification in an exemption case involving grocery managers (second in command at each store) at Albertson’s. The appellate court “read the court’s decision . . . to conclude[] that 900 individual inquiries – one for each grocery manager – would be required, because findings as to one manager could not ‘reasonably [be] extrapolate[d]’ to others given the significant variation in the work performed by grocery managers from store to store and week to week, as shown by defendant’s evidence,” which included 79 declarations of grocery managers, deposition excerpts, a chart outlining how the deposition testimony and Defendant’s counter-declarations differed from Plaintiff’s declarations, and statistics on varying amounts of time that grocery managers spent working cash registers over a year-long period.
Notably, Plaintiff urged on appeal that the trial court ignored its evidence and argument that individual issues could be effectively managed with the use of exemplar plaintiffs, survey results, subclassing, mini-trials, or special masters. The appellate court found that the record did not show that the trial court failed to consider these proposed methods but rather that the trial court rejected them in concluding that findings as to one grocery manager could not be extrapolated to others given the variations in their work. Although the trial court has an obligation to consider the use of “innovative procedural tools proposed by a party to certify a manageable class,” the party seeking class certification “must explain how the procedure will effectively manage the issues in question,” which the Plaintiff failed to do.
Dunbar v. Albertson’s, Inc., _ Cal. Rptr. 3d _, 2006 WL 2025013 (Cal. App. 1st Dist. July 20, 2006)
The Court of Appeal (First Appellate District, Division One) affirmed the trial court’s order denying class certification in an exemption case involving grocery managers (second in command at each store) at Albertson’s. The appellate court “read the court’s decision . . . to conclude[] that 900 individual inquiries – one for each grocery manager – would be required, because findings as to one manager could not ‘reasonably [be] extrapolate[d]’ to others given the significant variation in the work performed by grocery managers from store to store and week to week, as shown by defendant’s evidence,” which included 79 declarations of grocery managers, deposition excerpts, a chart outlining how the deposition testimony and Defendant’s counter-declarations differed from Plaintiff’s declarations, and statistics on varying amounts of time that grocery managers spent working cash registers over a year-long period.
Notably, Plaintiff urged on appeal that the trial court ignored its evidence and argument that individual issues could be effectively managed with the use of exemplar plaintiffs, survey results, subclassing, mini-trials, or special masters. The appellate court found that the record did not show that the trial court failed to consider these proposed methods but rather that the trial court rejected them in concluding that findings as to one grocery manager could not be extrapolated to others given the variations in their work. Although the trial court has an obligation to consider the use of “innovative procedural tools proposed by a party to certify a manageable class,” the party seeking class certification “must explain how the procedure will effectively manage the issues in question,” which the Plaintiff failed to do.
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