Avidor v. Sutter's Place: Court of Appeal OKs Casino Card Dealer Tip Pooling

In Avidor v. Sutter's Place, Inc. (1/23/13) --- Cal.App.4th ---, the Court of Appeal held that a casino's policy of requiring card dealers to contribute a portion of their tips to a tip pool did not violate California law.  The Court held: 

1. Evidence of the tipping customer's intent in leaving or providing the tip is not relevant, and the trial court did not err in excluding evidence of such intent at trial.  Even if the patron intended the tip to go only to the tipped employee, "that does not mean that the employee to whom it is given may keep it notwithstanding a policy he or she has agreed to in accepting employment."  Slip op. at 6-10.
2. Mandatory tip pools in casinos, where patrons typically give tips directly to individual employees -- rather than leaving them on the table to be picked up, as typically happens in restaurants -- does not violate Cal. Labor Code section 351.  Slip op. at 10-12. 
3. Substantial evidence supported the trial court's finding that the casino did not impermissibly include its agents -- those "having the authority to hire or discharge any employee or supervise, direct, or control the acts of employees" -- in the pool.  Slip op. at 12-14.  
4. Tips given to dealers were not their property, and the casino did not commit conversion by requiring the dealers to contribute tips to the pool.  Slip op. at 14-15. 
5. The dealers failed to show that they contributed more to the tip pool than they received in tips, thus reducing their hourly wages below the minimum wage rate, and the trial court did not err in granting summary judgment on the minimum wage claim.  Slip op. at 15-16.  
6. Because tips given to dealers were not their property, and every dealer understood that tips contributed to the pool were contributed for the benefit of the other employees in the pool, the dealers could not state a cause of action for money had and received.  Slip op. at 16-19.  

The opinion is available here.