Determination Of Class Certification Motion Should Be Based On Dynamex's "ABC Test"

Gonzales v. San Gabriel Transit, Inc., 2019 WL 4942213 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019)

Francisco Gonzales filed this putative class action against his former employer, San Gabriel Transit ("SGT"), alleging that he and 550 other drivers were misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees. The trial court denied class certification on the ground that Gonzales had failed to demonstrate the requisite community of interest or typicality among SGT drivers. While Gonzales' appeal was pending, the California Supreme Court decided Dynamex Ops. W., Inc. v. Superior Court, 4 Cal. 5^th 903 (2018) in which it adopted the "ABC Test" for determining employee/independent contractor status. In this opinion, the Court of Appeal reversed the denial of the class certification motion and ordered the trial court to apply the ABC Test to those claims involving enforcement of wage order requirements and the test from S.G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Indus. Relations, 48 Cal.