Leal v. Field Asset Services, Inc. ( 2023 )

1 MONIQUE OLIVIER (SBN 190385) CHRISTIAN SCHREIBER (SBN 245597) 2 (monique@os-legal.com) (christian@os-legal.com) 3 OLIVIER & SCHREIBER LLP 4 475 14th Street, Suite 250 Oakland, CA 94612 5 Telephone: (415) 484-0980 6 CASEY T. YAMASAKI (SBN 335445) (ctyamasaki@millershah.com) 7 MILLER SHAH LLP 8 1230 Columbia Street, Ste. 1140 San Diego, CA 92101 9 Telephone: (866) 540-5505 Facsimile: (866) 300-7367 10 Attorneys for Plaintiff Joel Leal 11 12 [Additional Counsel Listed on Signature Page] 13 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 14 15 Joel Leal, an individual, Case No.: 1:23-cv-01272-JLT-CDB 16 Plaintiff, STIPULATION RE DISMISSAL AND REMAND; [PROPOSED] 17 v. ORDER 18 Field Asset Services, Inc.; Field Asset Services, LLC; Xome Field Services LLC; Cyprexx 19 Services, LLC; and DOES 1-10, 20 Defendants. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 1 Plaintiff Joel Leal and Defendants Field Asset Services, Inc., Field Asset Services, LLC, 2 Xome Field Services LLC, and Cyprexx Services, LLC (collectively, “FAS” or “Defendants”) do 3 hereby stipulate as follows: 4 1. Plaintiff is a former class member in the action entitled Bowerman v. Field Asset 5 Services, LLC et al., Case 3:13-cv-00057-WHO (N.D. Cal.) (the “Bowerman Action”). The District 6 Court, the Honorable William H. Orrick presiding, certified the Class and granted summary 7 judgment on liability in their favor, after which a jury found for ten bellwether Class members. On 8 July 5, 2022, the Ninth Circuit issued an order decertifying the Class and reversing the Court’s 9 Orders granting summary judgment and awarding attorneys’ fees. On February 14, 2023, the Ninth 10 Circuit denied a subsequent Petition for Rehearing and issued an amended Opinion. The Circuit 11 issued mandate on February 22, 2023. Pursuant to the District Court’s orders, on April 14, 2023, 12 notice was sent to all Class members, informing them of the developments in the case and tolling 13 their claims through June 13, 2023. 14 2. On June 13, 2023, Plaintiff filed the instant action in state court, which was removed by 15 Defendants on August 24, 2023. On August 31, 2023, Defendants filed a motion to dismiss. 16 3. Thereafter the parties met and conferred and agreed that Plaintiff would dismiss with 17 prejudice his Labor Code claims because Plaintiff did not perform work within the statute of 18 limitations, even with tolling, for those claims. 19 4. The parties also agreed to request that this Court remand the remaining cause of action 20 under the Unfair Competition Law, Business & Professions Code §§ 17200 et seq. (“UCL”), which 21 has a longer statute of limitations. Remand is proper because the Ninth Circuit has held that federal 22 courts lack equitable jurisdiction over UCL claims where there is an adequate remedy at law, but 23 state courts may permit recovery under the UCL. See Sonner v. Premier Nutrition Corp., 971 F.3d 24 834, 844 (9th Cir. 2020) (Sonner I) and Guzman v. Polaris Indus., Inc., 49 F.4th 1308 (9th Cir. 25 2022), cert. denied sub nom. Polaris Indus., Inc. v. Albright, No. 22-987, 2023 WL 3937623 (June 26 12, 2023), Sonner v. Premier Nutrition Corp., 49 F.4th 1300 (9th Cir. 2022) (Sonner II). Judge 27 Orrick has held that the same UCL claims against Defendants brought by other former Class 1 members in the Bowerman Action must be remanded or dismissed without prejudice to refiling in 2 state court. See Order on Motions to Dismiss in Related Cases, Bowerman v. Field Asset Servs., 3 Inc., 3:13-cv-00057-WHO, 2023 WL 5111961, at *6–8 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 9, 2023). 4 5. Accordingly, the parties hereby agree that Plaintiff’s First, Second and Third Causes of 5 Action under the Labor Code should be dismissed with prejudice, and Plaintiff’s Fourth Cause of 6 Action under the UCL should be remanded to the state court. 7 IT IS SO STIPULATED. 8 DATED: September 12, 2023 Respectfully submitted, OLIVIER & SCHREIBER LLP 9 /s/ Christian Schreiber 10 MONIQUE OLIVIER (SBN 190385) 11 CHRISTIAN SCHREIBER (SBN 245597) (monique@os-legal.com) 12 (christian@os-legal.com) OLIVIER & SCHREIBER LLP 13 475 14th Street, Suite 250 14 Oakland, CA 94612 Telephone: (415) 484-0980 15 Attorneys for Plaintiff 16 17 DATED: September 12, 2023 Respectfully submitted, LITTLER MENDELSON P.C. 18 /s/ Robert Hulteng 19 ROBERT HULTENG (SBN 071293) 20 COURTNEY CHAMBERS (SBN 312011) SHANE YOUNG (SBN 313853) 21 ALVIN ARCEO (SBN 342387) (rhulteng@littler.com) 22 (cchambers@littler.com) (shyoung@littler.com) 23 (aarceo@littler.com) 24 LITTLER MENDELSON P.C. 333 Bush Street, 34th Floor 25 San Francisco, CA 94104 Telephone: (415) 433-1940 26 Attorneys for Defendants 27 1 [PROPOSED] ORDER 2 Good cause appearing, it is hereby ordered that Plaintiff's First, Second and Third Causes of 3 Action are DISMISSED with prejudice. Plaintiff's Fourth Cause of Action under the Unfair 4 Competition Law, Business & Professions Code §§ 17200 et seq. is REMANDED to the state court 5 6 IT IS SO ORDERED. 7 Dated: _ September 13, 2023 ( LAW ph l. wan 8 TED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 _ 2.