Justia U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Westwood Apex, a subsidiary entity of Westwood College, filed a breach of contract action against defendant to recover an unpaid student loan in San Bernardino County Superior Court. Defendant, a former Westwood College student, filed a class action counterclaim alleging that Westwood Apex and Westwood College committed fraud and engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices in connection with their operation of the college. Westwood College subsequently filed a notice of removal in the Central District of California. At issue was whether section 5 of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 ("CAFA"), 28 U.S.C. 1453(b), allowed a party joined to an action as a defendant to a counterclaim, an additional counterclaim defendant, to remove the case to federal court. The court held that section 1453(b) did not permit additional counterclaim defendants to remove an action to federal court and therefore, affirmed the district court's decision to remand the case to state courts.

Plaintiff and defendant, the United Parcel Service, Inc. ("UPS"), appealed a jury verdict awarding plaintiff unpaid overtime, meal, and rest-period wages. The district court originally certified a class comprised of full-time supervisors employed by UPS under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 and appointed plaintiff as class representative under California's Industrial Welfare Commission ("IWC") Wage Order No. 9, Cal. Code Regs. tit. 8 11090. At issue was whether the district court erred in subsequently decertifying the class on the ground that plaintiff failed to establish that common issues of law or fact predominated over individual ones. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in decertifying the class where the district court held that plaintiff had not established predominance, had relied heavily on a survey that was neither reliable nor representative of a class, that his remaining evidence similarly was not representative of the class, and did not address the "primarily engaged" element of the exemptions under the IWC Wage Order No. 9.