Wage Law

Last week, the Supreme Court denied a request to depublish the opinion in Benson v. Kwikset. This was another of the many cases involving Proposition 64, and how to handle requests to amend to substitute new suitable plaintiffs in 17200 cases for which the plaintiff lost standing after the ballot initiative was passed. The 4th District held:

In accordance with Branick, we will remand the case to the trial court to consider whether plaintiff should be permitted to amend the complaint to plead facts satisfying the standing requirements under the revised statute. If so, the trial court shall conduct further proceedings limited to a determination of whether plaintiff can prove he has standing and can maintain this lawsuit as a representative action. In the event plaintiff does so successfully, the original judgment shall be reimposed and the balance of our opinion shall stand as resolution of the issues previously raised by the parties.

Benson presented an interesting twist because a judgment had been entered before Prop 64 passed.