Brown v. Ralphs Grocery: U.S. Supreme Court Denies Certiorari

In Brown v. Ralphs Grocery Company (2011) 197 Cal.App.4th 489, the Court of Appeal held that an employer could not enforce an employee's waiver of the right to bring a representative action under the 2004 Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act ("PAGA"). Cal. Lab. Code 2698 et seq. The Court distinguished AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion on grounds that Concepcion "does not purport to deal with the FAA's possible preemption of contractual efforts to eliminate representative private attorney general actions to enforce the Labor Code."

The California Supreme Court denied the employer's petition for review on October 19, 2011. Perhaps more surprisingly, the Supreme Court of the United States denied certiorari on April 16, 2012. Some anticipated that the Court would at least vacate and remand, as it did in Sonic-Calabasas A, Inc. v. Moreno, which presents issues related to the limits (if any) on employment arbitration agreements.