California Court of Appeal

In this unpaid overtime wages litigation, denial of class certification to a putative class consisting of managerial employees is reversed and remanded, where: 1) the assertion of an exemption form the overtime law is considered to be an affirmative defense, and the employer bears the burden of proving the employee's exemption; 2) if plaintiffs were required to demonstrate that defendant's classification policy was either right as to all members of the class or wrong as to all members of the class, the employer's burden would be reversed, and nothing in the Supreme Court's Duran decision undermines this fundamental point; and 3) classwide relief remains the preferred method of resolving wage and hour claims, even when the facts appear to present difficult issues of proof.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/10/2014
• Published 11/10/2014

Judges

• Perluss

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel