Chatman v. WeDriveU, Inc

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedOctober 28, 2022
Docket3:22-cv-04849
StatusUnknown

This text of Chatman v. WeDriveU, Inc (Chatman v. WeDriveU, Inc) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chatman v. WeDriveU, Inc, (N.D. Cal. 2022).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 PRECIOUS CHATMAN, Case No. 3:22-cv-04849-WHO; Plaintiff, 3:22-cv-04850-WHO 8 9 v. GRANTING MOTION FOR PARTIAL JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS 10 WEDRIVEU, INC, AND GRANTING IN PART MOTION TO REMAND Defendant. 11 Re: Dkt. No. 18 (case no. 22-cv-04849) 12 Dkt. Nos. 16, 22 (case no. 22-cv-04859) 13 14 Plaintiff Precious Chatman works for defendant company WeDriveU, a shuttle 15 transportation service based in the Bay Area. She brought a putative class action and a claim 16 arising under California’s Private Attorney General Act (“PAGA”) in state court, alleging 17 WeDriveU violated various California state workplace laws. As relevant here, Chatman asserts 18 that WeDriveU failed to pay proper overtime, meal period, and sick leave. She also argues 19 WeDriveU engaged in unfair business practices and failed to pay minimum wage, provide 20 required rest periods, provide accurate itemized wage statements, and reimburse employees for 21 business expenses. These violations, she says, also give rise to her PAGA cause of action. 22 Currently pending are Chatman’s Motion to Remand case No. 3:22-CV-04850 (“the 23 PAGA case”) to state court (“Rem. Mot.”), [Dkt. No. 22]; WeDriveU’s Motion for Judgment on 24 the Pleadings in the PAGA case (“PAGA Mot.”), [Dkt. 16]; and WeDriveU’s Motion for 25 Judgment on the Pleadings in case no. 3:22-CV-04849 (“the class action” or “the purported class 26 action”) (“Class Mot.”), [Dkt. 18]. WeDriveU’s motion for judgment on the pleadings1 in both 27 1 cases rests on the theory that § 301 of the Labor and Management Relations Act (“LMRA”) 2 preempts Chatman’s claims pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”). That is 3 correct, as far as it goes, since Chatman also brings claims not encompassed by the CBA that are 4 not preempted. Chatman opposes judgment on the pleadings and moves to remand the PAGA suit 5 to state court. For the reasons that follow, I will GRANT the Motions for Judgment on the 6 Pleadings in each case and GRANT in part the Motion to Remand the PAGA case. I decline to 7 exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims in either case and so sua 8 sponte remand to state court all remaining state law claims in both cases. 9 BACKGROUND 10 Chatman brings her putative class action claims on behalf of herself and all those similarly 11 situated. Class Action Complaint (“Class Compl.”) [Class Dkt. No. 1, Ex. A ¶ 27, 37]. She also 12 brings a claim under PAGA based on the same underlying allegedly unlawful conduct. PAGA 13 Complaint (“PAGA Compl.”) [PAGA Dkt. No. 1, Ex. A ¶¶ 1, 4-6, 11, 13-17, 19-20, 22-26]. 14 While the class complaint seeks remedies for conduct going back to April 2018, the PAGA case 15 seeks remedies only since February 11, 2021. Id. ¶ 7. Because both complaints assert the same 16 underlying facts, I cite only the class complaint in this factual recitation. 17 Chatman alleges that defendant WeDriveU provides shuttle transportation services for 18 various third-party companies, and that she began working for WeDriveU in April 2018. Class 19 Compl. ¶¶ 2, 3. She asserts that she was not paid for time spent undergoing mandatory drug tests, 20 COVID questionnaires and screenings, and other required examinations; that WeDriveU routinely 21 rounded down actual time worked when recording hours and pay; and that working without time 22 properly recorded forced her to forfeit her statutory rights to minimum wage, overtime 23 compensation, off-duty meal periods, and proper sick leave compensation. Id. ¶ 8. She alleges 24 that WeDriveU incorrectly calculated her overtime, meal, and rest period pay by failing to account 25 for her “incentive compensation.” Id. ¶ 10. The complaint also states that WeDriveU failed to 26 provide the required 30 minute off-duty meal periods or rest periods and rounded down the 27 1 counted time, id. ¶ 11, 12, 24; failed to pay minimum wage or overtime for all hours worked, id. 2 ¶ 13, 24; failed to provide itemized and accurate wage statements, id. ¶ 14; did not furnish wages 3 within seven calendar days of the close of payroll, id. ¶ 16; miscalculated her sick leave pay, id. 4 ¶ 17-19; failed to reimburse her for required business expenses, including use of cell phones, id. 5 ¶ 22-23; and has not paid required waiting time penalties, id. ¶ 20. She also says that WeDriveU’s 6 various alleged violations of state law were unfair business practices, in violation of California 7 Business and Professions Code sections 17200, et. seq (the Unfair Competition Law, or “UCL”), 8 including WeDriveU’s failure to properly record hours worked, pay workers minimum wage and 9 overtime wages, and provide workers meal and rest periods. Id. ¶ 32. 10 Chatman’s PAGA claim alleges that this same conduct violated various state laws, which 11 together form the basis for a PAGA action. PAGA Compl. ¶ 8. 12 WeDriveU removed both cases to federal court, asserting as the basis for jurisdiction 13 preemption under § 301 of the LMRA. [Class Dkt. No. 1; PAGA Dkt. No. 1]. The removal 14 notices explained that Chatman is subject to the CBA, the terms of which preempt many of her 15 claims. Alongside its motions, WeDriveU filed Requests for Judicial Notice with a copy of the 16 CBA. [Class Dkt. No. 19; PAGA Dkt. No. 17]. Chatman does not mention the CBA in her 17 complaints. 18 As discussed further below, infra Discussion.II, I grant the Requests for Judicial Notice 19 and so I review the relevant contents of the CBA here. See Class Dkt. No. 19, Ex A. The CBA 20 provides for wages that are not less than 30 percent more than state minimum wage, id. at 27-28; 21 hours of work, id. at 6; working conditions, id. at 6-7, 9, 17-18, 28; premium overtime, id. at 6-7; 22 final and binding arbitration, id. at 22-24; and paid sick days, id. at 16. 23 Additionally, and as relevant to these suits, WeDriveU previously settled class claims for 24 alleged violations of worker protection laws (“the Davis Settlement”). See Reply in Support of 25 Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings (“Class Repl.”) [Class Dkt. No. 23] Ex. A, B. As discussed 26 below, infra Discussion.II, I take judicial notice of these settlement documents. Unless a class 27 member opted out, the Davis Settlement waived the rights of all WeDriveU employees to bring 1 overtime, unreimbursed business expenses, waiting time penalties, vacation and sick leave pay, 2 maintenance of employee records, adequacy of wage statements, PAGA penalties, unfair business 3 practices, and “[a]ny other claims alleged . . . or which could have been alleged based on the facts 4 alleged.” Id. Ex. A at pdf 11-12. The judicially approved settlement includes the names of parties 5 that opted out and Chatman is not listed. Id. at Ex. B pdf 7. 6 LEGAL STANDARD 7 I. Judgment on the Pleadings 8 “Judgment on the pleadings is properly granted when [, accepting all factual allegations in 9 the complaint as true,] there is no issue of material fact in dispute, and the moving party is entitled 10 to judgment as a matter of law.” Chavez v. United States, 683 F.3d 1102, 1108 (9th Cir. 2012) 11 (quoting Fleming v. Pickard, 581 F.3d 922, 925 (9th Cir. 2009)). “Analysis under Rule 12(c) is 12 ‘substantially identical’ to analysis under Rule 12(b)(6) because, under both rules, ‘a court must 13 determine whether the facts alleged in the complaint, taken as true, entitle the plaintiff to a legal 14 remedy.’” Id. (quoting Brooks v. Dunlop Mfg. Inc., No. C 10–04341 CRB, 2011 WL 6140912, at 15 *3 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 9, 2011)). Either motion may be granted only when it is clear that “no relief 16 could be granted under any set of facts that could be proven consistent with the allegations.” 17 McGlinchy v. Shull Chem. Co., 845 F.2d 802, 810 (9th Cir.

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