CA Supreme Court Decides Harris
This morning the CA Supreme Court issued its decision in Harris v. Superior Court. This case has relevance because the Bayer, Wyeth and Roche cases in the 9th Cir. were stayed pending Harris. By January 18th further briefs will be filed in the 9th determining the impact of Harris. The Court overruled the plaintiff’s motions for summary judgment. The California Supreme Court said in part, “The analysis in Bratt highlights the difficulty in relying on the particular role of employees in one enterprise to deduce a rule applicable to another kind of business.” This is helpful because Harris involves insurance adjusters. Here, we are dealing with detailers, a wholly different job and industry.
The court also said,
The essence of our holding is that, in resolving whether work qualifies as administrative, courts must consider the particular facts before them and apply the language of the statutes and wage orders at issue. Only if those sources fail to provide adequate guidance, as was the case in Bell II, is it appropriate to reach out to other sources.
We express no opinion on the strength of the parties’ relative positions. We merely hold that the Court of Appeal majority erred in its analysis.
