Fierro v. Landry's Rest. Inc.

232 Cal. Rptr. 3d 651, 23 Cal. App. 5th 325
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal, 5th District
DecidedApril 26, 2018
DocketD071904
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 232 Cal. Rptr. 3d 651 (Fierro v. Landry's Rest. Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal, 5th District primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fierro v. Landry's Rest. Inc., 232 Cal. Rptr. 3d 651, 23 Cal. App. 5th 325 (Cal. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

IRION, J.

*654*328Plaintiff Jorge Fierro filed the underlying action against defendant Landry's Restaurant Inc.,1 seeking remedies for what Fierro alleges to be Landry's' violations of specified California labor laws and wage orders. Fierro asserts claims on behalf of himself and on behalf of a class of individuals that he alleges is similarly situated. Landry's demurred to the complaint on the basis that each of the causes of action was barred by the applicable statute of limitations.

As to Fierro's individual claims, the trial court overruled the demurrer, concluding that the statute of limitations defense did not appear affirmatively on the face of the complaint. As to the class claims, the trial court sustained the demurrer without leave to amend on the basis that a prior class action with identical class claims against Landry's had been dismissed for failure to bring the case to trial in five years as required by Code of Civil Procedure 2 sections 583.310 and 583.360.3 Under the "death knell" doctrine, Fierro appeals from that portion of the order sustaining without leave to amend the demurrer to the class claims.4

*329The trial court erred. As we explain, from the record presented, we do not know the basis of the dismissal of the prior action; and, in any event, because the dismissal of the prior action is not final for purposes of res judicata or collateral estoppel, it cannot form the basis of a defense to the class claims in the present action. As we further explain, because we agree with the trial court that the statute of limitations defense does not appear affirmatively on the face of the complaint, *655there is no alternative basis on which to affirm the dismissal of the class claims. Accordingly, we will reverse and remand with instructions to enter an order overruling Landry's' demurrer in its entirety.

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND5

In this appeal following the sustaining of a demurrer, we assume the truth of the properly pleaded factual allegations, facts that reasonably can be inferred from those expressly pleaded, and matters of which judicial notice has been taken. ( Schifando v. City of Los Angeles (2003) 31 Cal.4th 1074, 1081, 6 Cal.Rptr.3d 457, 79 P.3d 569.)

In the present case, without identifying any specific document, the trial court took judicial notice "of the documents pertaining to the matter known *330as Martinez v. Joe's Crab Shack , L.A. Superior Court Case No. BC377269 [2016 WL 4958175] [ ( Martinez ) ]." The appellant's appendix contains a request for judicial notice filed by Fierro in support of his opposition to Landry's' demurrer. Fierro requested that the trial court judicially notice certain documents, each of which pertains to the Martinez action. Based on Landry's' trial court briefing and the register of actions provided in appellant's appendix, however, we learned that Landry's also filed a request for judicial notice in support of its demurrer-a document not in the record. Accordingly, we ordered the superior court file and, on our own motion, augmented the record to include Landry's request for judicial notice filed November 16, 2016. ( Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.155(c), (a).) Landry's also requested that the trial court judicially notice certain documents which pertain to Martinez . ( Rule 8.155(c), (a).)

We take judicial notice of the same Martinez documents that were judicially noticed by the trial court.6 ( Evid. Code, § 459, subd. (a).)

A. The Martinez Action7

In September 2007, Roberto Martinez filed the Martinez action, seeking to represent *656a class of salaried managerial employees who worked at Joe's Crab Shack restaurants in California. In three causes of action, Martinez alleged claims for: overtime pay on the basis that class members had been misclassified as exempt employees; and violations of law or regulations related to meal and rest periods and to wage statements. Martinez identified the original defendant as Joe's Crab Shack, Inc., and in a March 2008 amendment substituted Landry's Restaurant, Inc., for Doe 2.

In an October 2008 first amended complaint, Martinez, individually and on behalf of a class of unnamed members, asserted six causes of action against Joe's Crab Shack, Inc.

In March 2010, the Martinez trial court denied without prejudice Martinez's motion for class certification on the ground that Martinez was not an adequate class representative. Martinez did not appeal that order.

*331On the same day, the court allowed Martinez to file a second amended complaint that named Martinez, Lisa Saldana, and Steven Kauffman as the plaintiffs and class representatives and named Joe's Crab Shack, Inc., as the defendant.

In a November 2010 third amended complaint, the court allowed Craig Eriksen and Chanel Rankin-Stephens to join Martinez, Saldana, and Kauffman as named plaintiffs and class representatives against defendant Joe's Crab Shack, Inc. By the time of the plaintiffs' motion to certify the class in June 2011, Kauffman was no longer a plaintiff, and the defendants included Crab Addison, Inc., Ignite Restaurant Group, Inc., and Landry's Restaurants, Inc.8

Martinez, Saldana, Eriksen, and Rankin-Stephens moved to certify a plaintiff class consisting of " '[a]ll persons employed by Defendants in California as a salaried restaurant employee in a Joe's Crab Shack restaurant at any time since September 7, 2003.' " In May 2012, the Martinez court denied the motion, ruling that the plaintiffs had failed to establish: that their claims were typical of the class; that they could adequately represent the class; that common questions predominated the claims; and that a class action was the superior means of resolving the litigation.

The Martinez plaintiffs appealed, and in November 2014 the Court of Appeal reversed the order denying class certification, in a published opinion, Martinez v. Joe's Crab Shack Holdings (2014) 231 Cal.App.4th 362,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
232 Cal. Rptr. 3d 651, 23 Cal. App. 5th 325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fierro-v-landrys-rest-inc-calctapp5d-2018.