Class Action Insider

On August 23, 2017, Plaintiff Alfred Johnson filed a class action complaint on behalf of more than 14,000 job applicants in California state court against WinCo Foods (WinCo), seeking reimbursement for the time and travel expenses incurred while traveling to take a drug test.  Plaintiffs alleged that they were WinCo employees at the time they obtained a drug test.  The case was removed to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act in November 2017, and a class was certified in March 2020.  On August 3, 2020, Plaintiffs filed their motion for partial summary judgment as to whether class members were WinCo employees. On August 3, 2020, WinCo filed its motion for summary judgment, or in the alternative partial summary judgment. The district court held that as a matter of law, WinCo was entitled to summary judgment as to the entire class on the issue of whether class members were employees at the time of drug testing.

In the past six months, juries have awarded huge punitive damages awards in individual California employment cases. Given that these individual cases could also proceed as class actions, it is important to examine the frequency and reasoning behind the juries’ decisions.

Earlier this week the popular diet app Noom announced that it had reached a $62 million settlement with plaintiffs in a class action who brought a host of state-law consumer protection and common law claims based on Noom’s allegedly deceptive enrollment scheme.