California Supreme Court developments of interest in three cases (Updated)

Not one, but two cases of interest have been scheduled for oral argument in April: 

• On March 5, 2014, the Court scheduled oral argument in Ayala v. Antelope Valley Newspapers, No. S206874, in which the plaintiff newspaper carriers assert that their employer improperly classified them as independent contractors rather than employees.  The question on review is whether the Court of Appeal properly reversed, in large part, the trial court's order denying class certification of their wage and hour claims.  The argument will take place on Thursday, April 3, 2014 at 1:30 p.m. in Los Angeles.  For more information on the case, see this blog post. 

• On March 5, 2014, oral argument was also scheduled in one of the pending arbitration-related cases, Iskanian v. CLS Transportation, No. S204032 (as I previously reported). The argument was set for Thursday, April 3, 2014 at 9:00 a.m. in Los Angeles.  On March 10, 2014, petitioners' counsel filed a request to continue the argument to the June calendar.  On March 11, 2014, this request was denied, so the argument will proceed on April 3 as originally set. 

And, in other developments: 

• On March 7, 2014, the Supreme Court gave itself an extension of time, through April 15, 2014, to grant or deny review in Williams v. Superior Court (Allstate Ins. Co.), No. S215887.   This is one of the twelve post-Brinker class certification decisions.  UPDATE:  On March 19, 2014, the Supreme Court denied review in this case.