The California Supreme Court Declines to Hold Back The Tide of Overtime Class Actions.

Mondaq Business Briefing, September, 2004

On August 26, 2004, the California Supreme Court released its eagerly awaited opinion in Sav-On Drug Stores, Inc. v. Superior Court, -- Cal.4th --, 2004 WL 1902370 (2004). For several years now, California has been the battleground over a uniquely costly form of employment litigation--one that combines the state's unusually employee-friendly overtime laws with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23-type "opt out" class litigation. Sav-On is the first such class action to make its way to the California Supreme Court.

Employers hoping that the Court would use Sav-On as a vehicle for restricting overtime class actions will be disappointed. Rather than making a sweeping statement endorsing overtime class actions, or condemning them, the Court steered a middle course that...