Sepulveda, et al. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Case Updates

The Ninth Circuit disagreed with NCLC’s argument that the trial judge properly denied certification. The Ninth Circuit remanded the case to the district court to reconsider the certification question.

NCLC urged the Ninth Circuit to affirm a district court decision denying class certification in a wage and hour class action involving a proposed class of assistant managers employed by Wal-Mart alleging overtime under California law. In its brief, NCLC argued that class certification under the federal rules of civil procedure is appropriate only if the predominant form of relief sought by the class is injunctive or declaratory. Here, the highly individualized proof that would be required to make out the assistant managers’ claims for monetary relief establishes that those claims predominate over their claims for injunctive relief. Moreover, the relief sought by the managers was predominately monetary since more than half of the putative class members were no longer employed at Wal-Mart, and thus could not benefit from injunctive relief from the court.