Johnson v. Contemporary Services CA2/8

Filed 3/18/15 Johnson v. Contemporary Services CA2/8 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

ANGELA JOHNSON et al., B246792

Plaintiffs and Appellants. (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BC439520) v.

CONTEMPORARY SERVICES CORPORATION,

Defendant and Respondent,

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Kevin C. Brazile, Judge. Reversed and remanded with directions.

Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman, V. James DeSimone, Michael D. Seplow and Erin M. Pulaski, for Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Reed Smith, Remy Kessler and Steven B. Katz, for Defendant and Respondent.

__________________________

Plaintiffs Angela Johnson and Edwin Merino appeal from the order confirming an intermediate arbitration award which determined that plaintiffs’ representative Private Attorney General’s Act claims (Lab. Code, § 2698, et seq. (PAGA)) against employer Contemporary Services Corporation had to be arbitrated as individual claims only. The parties agree that intervening authority – Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348 (Iskanian)– requires that those claims proceed in some forum as a representative claim. We therefore reverse the orders confirming the arbitration award and compelling arbitration of the PAGA claim and remand for further proceedings to determine whether the representative PAGA claim should proceed along with the arbitration of the plaintiffs’ individual arbitration claims or be resolved in the superior court.