California Court of Appeal

In a class action suit against a payroll processing company, alleging violations of sections of the Labor Code and the federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA), for unpaid wages, trial court's judgment in favor of the defendant is affirmed where: 1) all of the federal court cases highlight that a payroll company, or any other person or entity that processes payroll, is not an employer because he, or she, or it, does not control the hiring, firing, and day-to-day supervision of workers supplying the labor; 2) there is no evidence that defendant allowed plaintiff to suffer work, permitted him to work, because there is no evidence showing that defendant had the power to either cause him to work or prevent him from working; 3) common law test of employment weighs in favor of the defendant; 4) plaintiff's claims under the FLSA is rejected as plaintiff was not an employee under the "economic reality test"; 5) plaintiff's claim that defendant is estopped from denying its status as his employer is rejected; 6) plaintiff's claim that the trial court weighed evidence and/or determined the credibility of evidence when ruling on defendant's motion for summary adjudication of issues (SAI) is rejected; and 7) trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting a further continuance of the motion for SAI.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/16/2010
• Published 12/16/2010

Judges

• BIGELOW

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Alan Harris, Ryan D. Saba