To my dear, loyal readers: I know I haven't been blogging regularly for some time, but I wanted to post today to share some excellent news. I won my second California Supreme Court case! In Frlekin v. Apple Inc., ___ Cal.5th ___ (Feb. 13, 2020), in a unanimous opinion by Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye, the Supreme Court held that time spent by my clients undergoing security searches of their purses, bags, backpacks, and Apple-branded technology devices is compensable "hours worked" under Wage Order 7.
This decision has been a long time coming. The case was filed in 2013 and class certification was granted in 2015. We then lost on cross-motions for summary judgment on liability. We appealed to the Ninth Circuit, and asked that Court to refer the question to the California Supreme Court, which it did in 2017. Frlekin v. Apple, Inc., 870 F.3d 867 (9th Cir. 2017). (The Ninth Circuit oral argument video can be viewed at this link, and the audio is at this link.) After full briefing, I presented oral argument in the California Supreme Court on December 4, 2019 (viewable here).
Many people provided assistance and support throughout this process, including my co-counsel Lee Shalov of McLaughlin & Stern in New York, my colleague Kate Rogers, and the authors of the amicus curiae briefs, namely, Gregg Adam (whose brief was quoted in the opinion), Aaron Kaufmann, Ari Stiller, and Dave Mara. My sincere thanks to all. We still have work to do in the case but this is a huge milestone.
I have received calls from many reporters today. The press coverage has been rather extensive, including articles in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, The Recorder, Bloomberg Law, and numerous other outlets. From The Recorder:
Plaintiffs' attorney, Kimberly Kralowec of San Francisco's Kralowec Law Group, praised the decision. "The court carefully adhered to both the text and the purpose of the wage orders, which is to protect California employees and ensure employees are compensated for all time worked," she said. "This is a very good day for employees working in California."
A very good day, indeed.
