Court Follows Opening Provided By Justice Sonia Sotomayor's Concurrence In Viking Cruises v. Moriana.
Following the Supreme Court opinion in Viking Cruises v. Moriani, there could be no disagreement that employee Million Seifu's individual PAGA claim against Lyft for personal Labor Code violations he suffered could be arbitrated. But that left the hot issue to be decided: whether he had standing, after his individual claim had been directed to arbitration, to bring a representative claim for other employees.
In Milton Seifu v. Lyft, Inc., B301774 (2/4 3/30/23) (Collins, Currey, Stone), the court explained that Seifu did have standing: "We conclude that we are not bound by the analysis of PAGA standing set forth in Viking River. As Justice Sotomayor recognized in her concurring opinion, PAGA standing is a matter of state law that must be decided by California courts. Until we have guidance from the California Supreme Court, our review of PAGA and relevant state decisional authority leads us to conclude that a plaintiff is not stripped of standing to pursue non-individual PAGA claims simply because his or her individual PAGA claim is compelled to arbitration." The court remanded to the trial court to decide whether the representative claims should be stayed pending arbitration of the individual.
The court relied on the California Supreme Court case Kim v. Reins International, 9 Cal.5th 13 (2020) to reach its conclusion that Seifu had standing under California law. The law is remedial and given a liberal interpretation to effect the Legislature's purpose of enforcing California's labor laws. We have blogged about other California cases that reached the same conclusion about standing: Tricia Galarasa v. Dolgen California, LLC, post dated 3/8/23, and Tom Piplack v. In-N-Out Burgers, post dated 3/20/23. We're eager to see how this turns out when the California Supreme Court decides Adolph v. Uber Technologies.
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