Kevin Tien, Carole McDonough, and Julia Strain, for themselves and as class representatives, appeal from the trial court's denial of class certification of their wage-related claims against their former employers, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, and several dozen of its subsidiaries. We affirm.
In August 2006, appellants Kevin Tien, Carole McDonough, and Julia Strain filed for themselves and as class representatives for all others similarly situated a joint consolidated amended complaint against respondent Tenet Healthcare Corporation and 37 of its subsidiaries.
—Missed Meal Periods: Appellants alleged Tenet did not provide statutory compensation to employees who did not take their 30-minute meal period within six hours of starting work, or did not take a second meal period after 10 hours of work.
—Missed Rest Breaks: Appellants alleged Tenet failed to provide a rest break for each four hours an employee worked. (Lab. Code, § 226.7.)
—Waiting Time Penalties: Appellants alleged Tenet did not pay terminated employees all the wages to which the employees were entitled upon their
—Pay Stub Violations: Appellants alleged Tenet's company-wide pay stub format omitted legally required information, including an employee's hourly rates with the number of hours worked at each rate. (Lab. Code, § 226.)
In September 2007, appellants moved for class certification. After hearing, the trial court issued in June 2008 its certification order giving appellants most, but not all, of what they sought.
—Missed Meal Period Class Conditionally Certified: The court found that appellants' definition of membership for the missed meal period class involved predominately individual questions of each employee's eligibility for compensation for missed meals, making appellants' definition of the class overly broad and inappropriate for class treatment. The court noted that uncertain compliance by employees with Tenet's electronic time-keeping record system (Kronos) introduced individualized questions whether particular employees took their meal periods. Additionally, the court noted, some employees signed lawful waivers for meals they missed, but the class definition did not take those waivers into account. The court thus exercised its power to narrow the class definition to conditionally grant class certification of the question of the accuracy of Kronos in determining whether employees took meal periods, and to determine whether employees voluntarily signed meal period waivers.
—Certified Waiting Time Penalty Class: The court found common questions predominated as to whether Tenet had a company-wide policy of delaying payment of wages owed to discharged employees, thus justifying class treatment.
—Certified Pay Stub Violations Class: The court found Tenet's use of a corporate-wide pay stub format meant common issues predominated, thereby warranting class treatment.
—Denied Certification of Missed Rest Breaks Class: The court found individualized assessment of each employee's eligibility for compensation for missed rest breaks predominated because the class definition did not allow for
Tenet moved for "clarification and/or reconsideration" of the court's certification order. Tenet asked the court, among other things, to clarify its reasoning that the accuracy of the Kronos affected whether class treatment was proper for employees who missed their meal periods. Tenet also asked the trial court to certify for interlocutory appellate review four ostensibly pure questions of law, one of which was whether an employer's obligation to "provide" a meal period to employees meant Tenet need merely offer a meal period, or must ensure employees take their meal periods. Opposing Tenet's "clarification/reconsideration" motion, appellants asserted Tenet was attempting to reargue the certification motion without offering any new information, facts, or law. The court heard Tenet's motion in July 2008, during which the court gave the parties written tentative comments stating its intention to take the motion under submission and to clarify certain portions of the June 2008 certification order.
Six days later on July 22, the Fourth District issued its decision in Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court (2008) 165 Cal.App.4th 25 [80 Cal.Rptr.3d 781], review granted October 22, 2008, S166350 (Brinker). Brinker held an employer satisfies its obligation to "provide" a meal period by making meal periods available, but need not guarantee that employees take their periods. Tenet filed with the court a memorandum discussing Brinker's effect on certification of appellants' meal period class. Tenet argued that, under Brinker, whether the Kronos was reliable was no longer material because no reasonable dispute existed that Tenet, at the very least, offered its employees the opportunity to take meal periods. Hence, whether Kronos accurately recorded the taking of meal periods was irrelevant because the law did not obligate Tenet to guarantee employees took their meals. Appellants filed a memorandum arguing the opposite. Asserting Brinker was wrongly decided, they urged the trial court need not follow Brinker because another published decision, Cicairos v. Summit Logistics, Inc. (2005) 133 Cal.App.4th 949 [35 Cal.Rptr.3d 243] (Cicairos), obligated an employer to ensure that employees take their meal periods. Appellants additionally asked the court to defer further action in the case until the time for the California Supreme Court to grant review of Brinker expired. The trial court agreed.
On October 22, 2008, the Supreme Court granted review of Brinker, resulting in its depublication. The next day, Tenet and appellants filed with the trial court a joint statement proposing how the court ought to proceed following Brinker's depublication. Appellants urged the court to move the case forward under its June 2008 certification order. Tenet argued, on the other hand, that judicial economy meant the court should stay further
Four days later on October 28, 2008, before the trial court issued its reconsideration order, the Second District filed Brinkley v. Public Storage, Inc. (2008) 167 Cal.App.4th 1278 [84 Cal.Rptr.3d 873], review granted January 14, 2009, S168806 (Brinkley). Like Brinker, Brinkley held that an employer's obligation to "provide" a meal period only obligated the employer to offer a period during which an employee could eat a meal; it did not obligate the employer to ensure the employee took the break. Three weeks later in November 2008, the trial court issued its ruling on Tenet's motion for reconsideration of the June certification order. Declaring Brinkley to be a "change of law," the court granted Tenet's motion. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1008, subd. (c) ["If a court at any time determines that there has been a change of law that warrants it to reconsider a prior order it entered, it may do so on its own motion and enter a different order."]; Le Francois v. Goel (2005) 35 Cal.4th 1094, 1100-1101 [29 Cal.Rptr.3d 249, 112 P.3d 636].) The trial court having "determine[d] that Brinkley ... a Second District case, is controlling and requires revocation and modification of the prior" June certification order, the court found "that the reasoning and holdings of the Brinkley court have a direct impact on this Court's prior order certifying Classes I [meal periods], III [waiting time penalties], and IV [pay stub violations], and require denial of the motion for class certification as to these classes." Finding the evidence overwhelming that Tenet made meal periods available to employees, the court found no need to examine the reliability of the Kronos to determine whether employees took their meal periods because no legal liability arose from an employee's failure to take a meal period. Consequently, the court denied certification of the meal period class. Denial of certification of the meal period class, in turn, triggered denial of certification of the waiting time penalties class because those penalties rested on the now unviable class claim for unpaid wages for missed meal periods. Finally, the court denied certification of the pay stub violations class because Brinkley required employees to show actual damages from any nonconforming pay stub, but individual
In January 2009, the Supreme Court granted its hold-and-review of Brinkley pending its decision in Brinker. Appellants thereafter asked the trial court to vacate its November denial of certification order which had gutted its June certification order. Appellants asked the court to reinstate its June order because the November order relied on the no longer citable Brinkley. Pointing to Cicairos, supra, 133 Cal.App.4th 949 as purportedly the only published authority on an employer's duty to provide meal periods to employees, appellants asserted the court erred in denying certification. Appellants counsel argued to the court: "As the court states in its opinion on November 17th, the court found that Brinkley was controlling on this court ... Brinkley was not controlling on this court. [¶] If you have divergent opinions from different appellate districts this court is entitled to look at whichever opinion it wants to. So Brinkley was not necessarily controlling. The court could have looked at Cicairos and stayed with the Cicairos decision."
The trial court declined to change its November denial of certification order. The court informed counsel: "Cicairos appears to me to be a minority view adopted by one court when a number of courts have taken the Brinkley/Brinker view and analysis and it seems stronger to me." This appeal followed.
Appellants contend the court committed multiple errors in denying class certification. We find the court ruled correctly for each of the four proposed classes.
Class certification "is `essentially a procedural [question] that does not ask whether an action is legally or factually meritorious.' [Citation.] A trial court ruling on a certification motion determines `whether ... the issues which may be jointly tried, when compared with those requiring separate adjudication, are so numerous or substantial that the maintenance of a class action would be advantageous to the judicial process and to the litigants.' [Citations.] .... [¶] ... `Because trial courts are ideally situated to evaluate the efficiencies and practicalities of permitting group action, they are afforded great discretion in granting or denying certification.... [Accordingly,] a trial court ruling supported by substantial evidence generally will not be disturbed "unless (1) improper criteria were used [citation]; or (2) erroneous legal assumptions were made [citation]" [citation] ....' [Citations.]" (Sav-On Drug Stores, Inc. v. Superior Court (2004) 34 Cal.4th 319, 326-327 [17 Cal.Rptr.3d 906, 96 P.3d 194], quoting Linder v. Thrifty Oil Co. (2000) 23 Cal.4th 429, 435-436 [97 Cal.Rptr.2d 179, 2 P.3d 27] (Linder).) However, "We do not apply this deferential standard of review if the trial court has evaluated class certification using improper criteria or an incorrect legal analysis .... [Citations.] The reviewing court `must examine the trial court's reasons for denying class certification.' [Citation.] When reviewing an order denying class certification, appellate courts `consider only the reasons cited by the trial court for the denial, and ignore other reasons that might support denial.' [Citation.]" (Jaimez v. Daiohs USA, Inc. (2010) 181 Cal.App.4th 1286, 1297-1298 [105 Cal.Rptr.3d 443] (Jaimez).) But if the court applies the correct legal standards and principles and finds individualized issues predominate, we review the finding for substantial evidence. "Our task is to determine whether the record contains substantial evidence to support the trial court's predominance finding. [Citation.] ... [Citation.] We will not reverse the trial court's ruling, if supported by substantial evidence, unless improper criteria were used or erroneous legal assumptions were made." (Keller v. Tuesday Morning, Inc. (2009) 179 Cal.App.4th 1389, 1397 [102 Cal.Rptr.3d 498].)
The trial court found individual questions of proof predominated. The court explained: "The Court would be required to conduct highly individualized determinations, including, but not limited to, whether putative class members took their meal periods and the reason(s) why meal periods were not taken, before a liability determination could be made. Importantly, a class action is not `superior' where there are numerous and substantial questions affecting each class member's right to recover, following determination of liability to the class as a whole." (Original italics.)
Here, the court found individual questions swirled around issues such as (1) employees signing, or not signing, missed meal logs which created inconsistencies with time records showing whether meals were taken; (2) certain employees receiving meal periods although time records showed otherwise; (3) employees not clocking out through Kronos but signing correction slips documenting they took their meals; and (4) some employees shorting the clock by starting their meals before clocking out. The court's findings coincide with the commonsense notion that individual questions about the reasons an employee might not take a meal period are more likely to predominate if the employer need only offer meal periods, but need not ensure employees take those periods.
The trial court found Tenet's policies made 10-minute rest breaks available after every four hours of work. Given that Tenet was obligated only to offer rest breaks, liability arose for Tenet only if its policy was a policy in name only and unobserved in practice. (Cf. Jaimez, supra, 181 Cal.App.4th at p. 1294; id. at pp. 1300, 1304-1305 [employer scheduled work routine that made it virtually impossible as a practical matter for employees to take rest breaks and still complete their assigned work].) The trial court found that because employees did not record their 10-minute breaks on Kronos, the reasons, if any, that employees might not take their breaks were predominately individualized questions of fact not susceptible to class treatment. Hence, class certification was unwarranted.
The court held class certification of pay stub violations required class members to show actual injury from noncomplying pay stubs. (Lab. Code, § 226.) Appellants asserted employees suffered the injury of not being able to understand their pay stubs. The trial court found, however, that individual questions of actual injury predominated over common questions, explaining "The Court would have to determine whether each individual class member actually suffered injury or damages as a result of the pay stubs lacking the information required under the Labor Code .... Such highly individualized determinations would render the class mechanism impracticable...."
In denying class certification, the trial court's November 2008 order cited Brinkley as compelling the denial. Appellants contend the court erred when it refused to reverse its November order after the Supreme Court granted review of Brinkley in January 2009. Noting that a court may not cite an unpublished decision (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a)), appellants contend depublication of Brinkley necessarily meant reversing the November order which relied on Brinkley. Appellants assert the court's refusal to reverse itself was legal
Appellants' contention fails because Brinkley was a still-published decision when the trial court relied on it in November 2008; Brinkley's depublication did not occur until January 2009. Although Brinkley's depublication meant the trial court could no longer rely on that decision after January 2009, appellants cite no authority that the court's reliance on Brinkley before its depublication violated the rule prohibiting citation of depublished decisions. (Cf. Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(d) ["A published California opinion may be cited or relied on as soon as it is certified for publication or ordered published."].) In any case, although the Supreme Court's granting of review in Brinkley and Brinker meant they were no longer citable, the trial court found their analysis of the law was more persuasive than Cicairos. Describing the legal reasoning of Brinkley and Brinker about an employer's obligation to provide meal periods, the trial court concluded: "I've looked at the analysis, I've looked at the logic of it and it makes more sense to me at this juncture."
Appellants contend the court violated their due process right to be heard when it relied on Brinkley to deny certification. According to appellants, the court "wrongfully reconsidered on its own motion [its June certification
First, Tenet's motion for reconsideration of the June certification order was pending in October 2008 when Brinkley was decided. Appellants did not request supplemental briefing after Brinkley issued, thus waiving their claim that the court denied them the opportunity to brief Brinkley's effect on their class action claims. In any case, the trial court had previously permitted appellants (and Tenet) to submit written argument several months earlier in the summer of 2008 on Brinker and the legal principles for which it stood, namely that an employer need only make meal periods available, but need not ensure employees take their meals. According to appellants, Brinker and Brinkley stood for the same proposition; appellants argued, "Brinkley's holding is nearly identical to the now defunct Brinker, holding as it pertains to the meal and rest period issues." On appeal, appellants do not identify what new arguments they would have made about the scope of an employer's obligation under Brinkley to "provide" meal periods that they had not previously made about that obligation under Brinker.
The court found "by any measure" that Tenet made meal periods "available." Appellants note that class certification raises procedural hurdles which appellants must overcome, but does not require appellants, nor permit the court, to address the merits of appellants' class claims. "The certification question is `essentially a procedural one that does not ask whether an action is legally or factually meritorious.' [Citation.]" (Sav-On Drug Stores, Inc. v. Superior Court, supra, 34 Cal.4th at p. 326.) Appellants contend the court probed the merits of their claims when it found Tenet's obligation to "provide" a meal period merely obligated Tenet to make meal periods available without ensuring employees took their meal periods. Thus, according to appellants, the court acted beyond its authority when it found Tenet's offering of meal periods was sufficient to relieve Tenet of class liability.
Appellants contend that, with one exception involving the court's denial of class certification for the meal break class, the court ruled correctly in its June
Appellants assert little, if any, evidence exists that the court initially intended its June order to be a tentative order. They claim no language within the June order states it was a tentative decision. They additionally note that the order's disposition set forth the next steps the parties were to take in the proceedings, which was consistent with the court envisioning its June order as a final, nontentative ruling. Finally, Tenet styled its motion challenging the June order as a motion for reconsideration and clarification, not as a motion seeking to put the final touches to an interim order. Hence, according to appellants, Tenet's authorities that a party may not use an interim order to impeach a final order are inapt. Be that as it may, regardless of whether the court initially may have envisioned its June order as being the operative certification order, it did not become so. Within days of the court's June order, Tenet filed its motion for "clarification and/or reconsideration," which the court took under submission and later granted. The court's intended final order on certification was its November order, which is the order from which appellants took their appeal and, as the operative order, the one in which they must show legal error in order to prevail on appeal. In that challenge, they cite no authority elevating the superseded June order to being anything more than largely beside the point.
The November 2008 order denying class certification is affirmed. Each side to bear its own costs on appeal.
Bigelow, P. J., and Grimes, J., concurred.