Wage Law

We had a discussion with a colleague the other day about this meal period statute of limitations issue that is so frequently discussed here. The question, relevant to us because we are both practicing in Orange County, was whether the 4th District Court of Appeal, Division 3, had ever issued an opinion, published or otherwise, on the "penalty or wage" issue for Labor Code § 226.7 pay. He insisted that Justice Rylaarsdam had authored a majority opinion in Division Three that held the hour of pay to be a statutory penalty. We were certain that there was no such case. After all, since 2004, we have literally read every single published and unpublished case, on an almost daily basis, and we would remember if someone from our local appellate division had made such a decision.

To an outsider, the conversation must have sounded about as fascinating as two World of Warcraft players arguing over the value of their virtual weapons, but to us, of course, these issues can have a profound impact on the value of very large cases. Thus, we obsess.

Anyhow, we were right. When our colleague went to Westlaw and dug up the case -- Walton v. Resource Consultants, Inc., 2003 WL 21213267 -- it said the opinion was authored by Rylaarsdam, and although it was a case arising from facts that predated the enactment of Labor Code § 226.7, it did call that later-enacted benefit of an hour of pay a statutory penalty. However, Walton was a Division One appeal arising from a San Diego County case. Rylaarsdam is not a Division Three justice. So we checked Lexis and saw that Lexis says the opinion was written by Justice Judith Lynette Haller. The court's official website says the same. We've come to the conclusion that Westlaw got the author wrong, and will continue to conclude so unless we see a signed opinion showing that Rylaarsdam was sitting on assignment in Division One for that case. So we won the bet. On the other hand, you should be able to trust Westlaw, so we won't make him pay up.

It sounds like a minor error, but if you were a lawyer getting ready for oral argument in front of Justice Rylaarsdam, thinking that he wrote Walton could be a costly mistake.